A planet that is not quite round: Webb watches one side of a distant world bulge into the heat

Planets are usually drawn as neat circles. Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers led by Cornell's Lili Alderson measured the giant planet WASP-17b from side to side and top to bottom — and found its evening side puffs out about 1.8 times farther than its morning side, running roughly 660°C (about 1,200°F) hotter. It is the first measurement of its kind, and it turns a distant dot into a real, three-dimensional world with weather.