Astronomers have discovered an interesting feature on a red-hot, giant planet outside of our solar system. The atmosphere “snows” titanium dioxide, the active ingredient used in most brands of sunscreen. The discovery was made by a team of astronomers at Penn State who used the Hubble Telescope to identify the planet’s “sunscreen snow” phenomenon.
According to Science Daily, this is the first time that this “snow-out” or “cold trap” process has been discovered on an exoplanet, defined as a planet orbiting a star outside of our solar system. These observations will help expand researchers’ understanding of the complicated weather patterns that exist on these exo-planets and could assist in determining whether they are viable for human habitation.