Cloudy mornings and clear evenings on a gas giant exoplanet

The spectra of exoplanet atmospheres are affected by aerosols (clouds and hazes) of uncertain origin. Proposed aerosol formation mechanisms include gas condensation or photochemical reactions. We measured the transmission spectrum of the tidally locked gas giant exoplanet WASP-94A b and identified asymmetry in its atmosphere. The morning limb is cooler and cloudy, whereas the evening limb is hotter and exhibits gaseous water absorption features. We interpret this difference as being due to the formation of cloud droplets near the morning limb, which evaporate during circulation to the evening limb. The dominant aerosols are clouds cycling between the day and night sides of the atmosphere, not photochemical hazes. The resulting asymmetry can severely bias chemical abundance measurements, unless limb-resolved spectroscopy is available.