10 Amazing exoplanets in Space
10 Amazing exoplanets in Space
Space is unbelievably strange. You would be forgiven for thinking that every planet out there is similar, just a big ball of rock and gas, but planets are remarkably more unique than that.
Here's the top 10 amazing planets in the known universe, that seem like they belong in some bizarre science fiction series.
1. Darkest planet TrES-2b
First up this dark, menacing planet affectionately named TrES-2b.
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| image courtesy: nasa.gov |
It is located 750 light year away from our solar system. As far as we know it is officially the darkest planet in the entire universe. It reflects less then 1% of all light that hits it, making it significantly darker than the majority of known exo-planets.It's ominously dark surface can be partially explained by the light absorbent gases that make up the bulk of the planet. But scientists don't really know for sure why it is so dark.
But it gets creepier, not only does this evil looking ball of gas not reflect any light, it actually glows a molten red color, as if it's a hot ball of coal on fire. The surface of the planet is a punishing 1100 degree Celsius, which is so hot that it glows red.
2. Diamond Planet 55 Cancrie
This next planet is anything but dark. In fact it sparkles reminiscently in space, just like a diamond. Because it is in fact a gigantic diamond.
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| image courtesy: tumblr.com |
This planet named 55 Cancrie is about twice the size of earth and a third of it is made up of solid diamond. The planet is very carbon heavy, and the planet is so dense that all carbon is in the form of solid diamond.
But don't get too excited, the diamond planet is located a spectacular 40 light years away from earth. And even if you could travel that far and retrieve the endless supply of diamonds it has to offer. There is so much diamond on the planet that bringing even a minute fraction of it back to Earth, would completely overwhelm the diamond supply and therefore make diamonds completely worthless. So this planet is best admired from afar.
3.Ball of ice on fire Gliese 436b
This next planet seems to defy everything you knew about chemistry, because it's giant ball of ice on fire.
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| image courtesy:futurism.com |
Imagine for a second you're on the ice planet Hoth from Star Wars. That's exactly what Gliese 436b would look like except that the icy surface is constantly burning at 439 degree Celsius.
So how can this be ?
How can ice defy the laws of chemistry and stay completely solid at 439 degree Celsius above its melting point ?
Well, the planets gravity is so immensely strong that it pulls the melted ice water towards its core, compressing it into a solid form, stopping it from ever evaporating, no matter how much it burns.
4. Glass rain Planet HD 189773b
Next time you complain about the whether on Earth, just stop for a moment & be thankful that you don't live on the planet HD 189773b where it constantly rains glass, sideways.
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| image courtesy : pbs.org |
This planet's atmosphere is full of silicon particles which give it it's beautiful blue color. But because of the planet's extremely high surface temperatures these silicon particles condense to form solid glass which flies around the planet sideways in it's endless 4000 MPH winds.
5. Star Eating a Planet WASP-12b
This poor unfortunate planet is slowly being eaten alive by its star. It's caught up in an orbit so close to its star that the whole planet has been heated up to unimaginably high temperatures and its mass is slowly being sucked up as it hurtles around the star extremely fast.
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| image courtesy: nasa.gov |
This planet which is roughly the size of Jupiter, however it appears to be larger because the molten temperatures of its parent star have caused WASP-12b to balloon up. This poor planet loses an incredible 6 billion metric tonnes of mass per second.
In fact it's being torn apart so quickly that it's no longer a sphere but an egg like, oblong shape.
6. Exo-planet likely to support alien life Gliese 581c
The planet is very special because it's been voted by the scientific community as one of the top three exoplanets likely to support alien life.
However it is very different to Earth. It orbits a red dwarf star so if you looked up into the sky it would always be a deep crimson red color. The planet is also tidal locked, which means it doesn't rotate on its axis, just like our moon's relationship to Earth, one side of the planet is always facing away from its star and the other always facing towards it.
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| image courtesy: wikimedia.org |
The side of Gliese 581c that is always facing its red dwarf star is so blisteringly hot that if you were to stand there it would melt you alive. However the opposite side of the planet, facing away from the star is so cold that you would instantly freeze.
So you may be wondering, how could this extremely violent planet possibly support life similar to humans?
Well there is a narrow strip of land, halfway between its hot side and its icy side that is just the perfect temperature to support life.
7. Largest Planet WASP-17b
The Scorpius Constellation WASP-17b what makes this giant of a planet so peculiar is its shear size.
It is 1.9 times the size of Jupiter, which is the largest planet in our solar system. It's so large that theoretically it should not exist. According to scientists it breaks the laws of ho large a planet can actually get. For its size it also has an extremely low density. Because of this it fits in to a very unique class of planets called puffy planets,that's actually a scientific term.
Puffy Planets are planets with an extremely large radius & very low density for their size.It also has a retrograde orbit, which means it rotates in an opposite direction to its host star.
8. Triple Star Planet HD 188753Ab
149 light years from Earth is a planet with three suns. This three star planet which goes by its catalogue name of HD 188753Ab sits within the triple star system HD 188753.
If you could live on this planet you would experience triple shadows, and constant eclipses as its three parent stars cross each other.
And of course you would see the some of the strangest and most beautiful sunsets and sunrises in the universe.
9. Water World Planet GJ 1214b
Now imagine you are in the middle of the ocean, the sky is blue with fluffy white clouds but there's no land to be seen, in every direction you turn is just endless water.Well that's exactly what it would be like if you were to visit this planet 47 light years away from Earth, which goes by its catalogue name of GJ 1214b.
This planet is made up entirely of water, many scientists have nicknamed this planet "Water World". The entire surface of the planet is one giant, continuous ocean and it remains exactly the same for miles underneath the surface until eventually you hit the planets core, which is made of solid ice.
But this isn't any ordinary ice, its not the kind of ice you would find in your freezer. Because this ice isn't frozen due to cold temperatures. The water in the planet's core is under such immense levels of pressure from the surface that the core has been compressed into solid ice. This is a very special form of ice known to scientists as ICE VII (ice seven).
10. Earth-like Planet Kepler 438-b
470 light year away is a planet discovered by the Kepler Space Observatory, known as Kepler 438-b. This planet is very strange, not because it has any extreme features but quite the opposite. Because it is, to date, the most Earth like planet we have ever found.
Discovered in January 2015, this planet has all the right pre-requisites for alien life. Most importantly, it is a rocky world, like Earth and its proximity to its host star puts it in what scientists call the goldilocks zone, which is the holy grail of space exploration. The goldilocks zone is when a planet is not too close to its parent star that it's too hot for life, yet not too far away that its too cold.
Kepler 438b a rocky planet in the goldilocks zone is highly likely to have liquid water and therefore life. Which makes it one of the strangest and most interesting exo-planet we have ever discovered.
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