It is a young, hot and massive gas giant, and is fairly close to its star, lying just between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus in the Solar System.

On 27 March 2019, the European Southern Observatory announced the result of their Very Large Telescope astronomical interferometer (VLTI) imaging of HR 8799 e employing the GRAVITY instrument.

A spectrum ten times more detailed than earlier observations revealed a complex exoplanetary atmosphere with clouds of iron and silicates swirling in a planet-wide storm.

Team leader Sylvestre Lacour said: "Our analysis showed that HR 8799 e has an atmosphere containing far more carbon monoxide than methane — something not expected from equilibrium chemistry.

We can best explain this surprising result with high vertical winds within the atmosphere preventing the carbon monoxide from reacting with hydrogen to form methane.