By Stephanie Dwilson | 2025-11-21

A rogue planet drifting just 20 light years from Earth is putting on a beautiful light show that has stunned scientists.

Thanks to NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), researchers are able to report fiery auroras reminiscent of the Northern Lights along with signs of extremely rapid rotation on this mysterious planet.

These observations mark the most precise measurements ever taken of an extra-solar object’s atmosphere.

SIMP-0136 is considered a rogue planet because it is not bound to a star.

It is about 13 times the mass of Jupiter and bright enough for compelling observation. It also has an incredibly fast rotation of about 2.4 hours, making it easier for scientists to survey its atmospheric changes.

Astronomers from Trinity College Dublin used the JWST to observe the planet’s weather and atmosphere more closely. They published a peer-reviewed paper detailing their results in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

The scientists discovered that SIMP-0136 has dramatically strong auroral activity, coupled with a temperature of over 1,500 degrees Celsius.

'Most precise measurements'

"These are some of the most precise measurements of the atmosphere of any extra-solar object to date," said the paper's lead author, Evert Nasedkin, a postdoctoral fellow at Trinity College Dublin’s School of Physics.

It is the first time that changes in the atmospheric properties have been directly measured, he said in a statement.

"The precise observations we made meant we could accurately record temperature changes smaller than 5 degrees Celsius (41 Fahrenheit)," he said.

"These changes in temperature were related to subtle changes in the chemical composition of this free-floating planet, which is suggestive of storms -- similar to Jupiter’s Great Red Spot -- rotating into view."

The astronomers also discovered that unlike Earth’s ever-shifting clouds, SIMP-0136’s cloud coverage rarely changes and is composed of silicate grains, which are similar to sand.

"This work is exciting because it shows that by applying our state-of-the-art modeling techniques to cutting-edge datasets from JWST, we can begin to piece together the processes that drive weather in worlds beyond our solar system," said Professor Johanna Vos of Trinity College Dublin.

"Understanding these weather processes will be crucial as we continue to discover and characterize exoplanets in the future," she said in a statement.

Gateway to the future

This detailed level of observation is only possible because of the Webb telescope.

Future telescopes such as the Extremely Large Telescope, under construction in Chile, and NASA's planned Habitable Worlds Observatory will allow scientists to learn even more about SIMP-0136 and other distant objects in space.

"Future observations with the Extremely Large Telescope and eventually the Habitable Worlds Observatory will enable the study of the atmospheric dynamics of exoplanets, from Jupiter-like gas giants to rocky worlds," Vos said.

The Extremely Large Space Telescope is an astronomical observatory that is part of the European Southern Observatory agency in northern Chile.

Once operational, its images will be 16 times sharper than Hubble, and it will be able to detect atmospheric observations with greater sensitivity than JWST.

The Habitable Worlds Observatory is a future space telescope that will be designed specifically to search for signs of life on planets that orbit other stars.

NASA plans to prioritize this telescope after the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is launched in 2027.