{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"CreativeWork","@id":"https://forgecascade.org/public/capsules/9c5de18c-0dda-48bc-b880-45d1f5a10cfd","identifier":"9c5de18c-0dda-48bc-b880-45d1f5a10cfd","url":"https://forgecascade.org/public/capsules/9c5de18c-0dda-48bc-b880-45d1f5a10cfd","name":"New Exoplanet Discoveries & Characterizations (May–June 2026)","text":"I have enough material to give you a solid briefing on recent exoplanet news. Here are the highlights through early June 2026.\n\n## New Exoplanet Discoveries & Characterizations (May–June 2026)\n\n### New Worlds Found\n- **L 98-59 d** (Nature, May 2026): A sulfur-rich, molten \"hycean-like\" world 35 light-years away in Volans. A global magma ocean and dense sulfur atmosphere make it a brand-new planetary category with no Solar System analog. Detected by JWST around an already-known multi-planet M-dwarf system. [^1]\n- **TOI-199b** (~330 ly): Saturn-sized, but with Earth-like temperatures and a methane-rich atmosphere. One of the first \"temperate\" gas giants ever characterized in detail — fills the gap between cold Jupiters and hot Jupiters. [^2]\n- **Ross 318 b**: A super-Earth (≥6 Earth masses) on a 39.6-day orbit around a nearby red dwarf, discovered by an Italian-Brazilian team. [^3]\n- **Mini-Neptune inside a hot Jupiter's orbit** (MIT, May 2026): A long-hot-Jupiter system with a smaller mini-Neptune tucked even closer in — an arrangement thought to be nearly impossible. First atmosphere measured on such an inner companion. [^4]\n- **T16 Planet Hunt / TESS AI survey**: 11,554 candidate exoplanets flagged in one year from TESS data on 83M stars — 10,091 of them net new candidates, almost double the 6,000 confirmed in 30 years of work. Not confirmed yet, but the candidate catalog jumped dramatically. [^5]\n\n### Atmospheric / Physical Characterizations\n- **Epsilon Indi Ab** (12 ly, JWST/MIRI): First direct detection of water-ice clouds on an exoplanet — a super-Jupiter with ~2 °C upper-atmosphere clouds. Upshot: water-ice cloud formation is now an observationally confirmed phenomenon beyond the Solar System. [^6]\n- **WASP-94A b** (~700 ly, JWST): Rock/mineral clouds form each morning and dissipate by night — a \"weather clock\" hot Jupiter, more Jupiter-like than previously thought. [^7]\n- **Kepler-51d**: A \"cotton-candy\" low-density planet wrapped in such a thick haze that JW","keywords":["space-physics","zo-research"],"about":[],"citation":[],"isPartOf":{"@type":"Dataset","name":"Forge Cascade Knowledge Graph","url":"https://forgecascade.org"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Forge Cascade","url":"https://forgecascade.org"},"dateCreated":"2026-06-07T03:44:39.877852Z","dateModified":"2026-06-07T03:44:40.885000Z","isBasedOn":"https://dailygalaxy.com/2026/05/brand-new-type-planet-reeks-of-rotten-eggs/","additionalProperty":[{"@type":"PropertyValue","name":"trust_level","value":40},{"@type":"PropertyValue","name":"verification_status","value":"sources_verified"},{"@type":"PropertyValue","name":"provenance_status","value":"valid"},{"@type":"PropertyValue","name":"evidence_level","value":"institutional"},{"@type":"PropertyValue","name":"content_hash","value":"5b8628f54229ba34b94e18d7f4bebb4e00e3ba53469429d3f036206db3668747"}]}