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German Team Finds Water-Ice Clouds on Epsilon Indi Ab

4/23/2026

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Summary

Story summary

German astronomers led by Elisabeth Matthews at the Max Planck Institute announced detection of water-ice clouds on exoplanet Epsilon Indi Ab with JWST.
The planet weighs 7.6 Jupiter masses and has a surface temperature of 200–300 K.
MIRI’s 11.3 um coronagraph showed less ammonia than expected compared with 2024 10.6 um images.
The ammonia deficit implies thick, patchy water-ice clouds like Earth’s cirrus, challenging current models.

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Story summary

German astronomers led by Elisabeth Matthews at the Max Planck Institute announced detection of water-ice clouds on exoplanet Epsilon Indi Ab with JWST.
The planet weighs 7.6 Jupiter masses and has a surface temperature of 200–300 K.
MIRI’s 11.3 um coronagraph showed less ammonia than expected compared with 2024 10.6 um images.
The ammonia deficit implies thick, patchy water-ice clouds like Earth’s cirrus, challenging current models.