10 STRANGEST Recent Planet Discoveries

 

most planets outside of our solar system  are boring and  unremarkable if they had a favorite  color it'd probably be beige  whether made from desolate rock or giant  balls of gas  they're rarely interesting save for a  select few  so what are some of the strangest  planets we've discovered so far  welcome to  and in today's  article we're dusting off our galactic  passports and checking out  10 of the strangest planet discoveries  number 10.  tres 2b population bloodsuckers  this place may very well be a vampire's  paradise  it's covered in a blanket of perpetual  night  it's one and a half times the size of  jupiter with a surface that absorbs  light better than charcoal and is  blisteringly hot  if hell was an actual place this would  be it  even on the ex-planet now dwarf planet  pluto we would have enough light to be  able to see around us on its daytime  surface  but this planet is the darkest celestial  body we've come across  in centuries of surveying the cosmos  reflecting just one percent of the light  that hits the surface  absorbing the rest a sinister dark red  glow is emanated from a smoldering  atmosphere with air temperatures as hot  as  molten lava it gives the dark planet an  ominous glow in a look of pure evil and  insanity  9. gliese 436b best of both worlds  when you picture an ice cube the image  of a cold beverage with condensation on  the glass comes to mind  the last thing you would think of is ice  that's over five times hotter than  boiling water  well on gliese 436b the rules of  thermodynamics still apply but in a  super weird way it has a molten core  made of a liquid rock and metal much  like earth  covered by a thick layer of water  wrapped up in a nice bow made of  hydrogen  seems normal so far until you learn that  the ice  burns at close to 1000 degrees  fahrenheit  solid water forms on earth as the  temperature drops but here extreme  pressure transforms water into ice the  same way carbon is made into diamonds  it's the equivalent of burning your feet  walking across a bed of ice cubes  instead of hot coals  number 8 wasp 12b parasitic victim  wasp 12b is a doomed planet no doubt  about it  think of it like a hotter version of  jupiter only drawn in  so close by its star's gravity that a  solar year of orbit takes just 1.1  earth days but the super short year  isn't the reason that this planet has a  destined date with a gloomy fate  the star's scorching heat and powerful  ionizing radiation  are slowly breaking it apart then to  make things worse the incredible gravity  is pulling the contents of the planet  into the nuclear fusion reaction at the  star's core  this slow death makes wasp 12b look like  an egg as  broken down gas is sucked up to a point  just like a huge cosmic cone  the poor gas giant is helpless and  cannot escape its cannibalistic body  being slowly sucked dry over the next 10  million years  number 7 ogle2005blg390lb  cold hearted does the surface of a  planet get colder the longer its name  is in this case the answer is yes as low  as negative 370 degrees fahrenheit  its star is a tiny red dwarf whose light  and heat  barely touch the surface of the planet  leaving it only a smidgen warmer than  absolute  zero the ice here never thaws stuck in  an eternal winter as a barren rock  incapable of sustaining life it's hard  to imagine that only a decade ago  this was the most earth-like planet even  though it sits well  outside the habitable goldilocks orbital  range  number six hd189733b  forecast chance of rain by all  appearances  this lonely exoplanet looks like a  utopia  there are no other planets in this  single star single planet  system and this one looks the part it  appears like a glowing azure orb with  swirling clouds pushing their way  through its atmosphere  a betting man would stake his whole  house on the wager that the surface has  liquid water  and it would be a great candidate for a  second earth the same man would be  sleeping on a piece of cardboard under a  bridge tonight  closer inspection tells a wildly  different story  the atmosphere is actually made up of  hard silicate particles  in other words it rains tiny shards of  glass  and it gets better winds on this little  blue sphere  reach speeds of up to 5 400 miles per  hour or over 20 times that on earth  ripping you apart into a fine red mist  number 5. demi diem doesn't do things by  halves  the name demi diem comes from the latin  word for half  as the planet's mass is roughly half  that of jupiter  it was the first exoplanet discovered  that orbits a main sequence star  traces of water have been found on its  surface but that's where the  similarities to earth  start and end it's tidally locked to its  star  meaning the same side gets bombarded  with all the solar radiation and never  gets the reprieve of night  the hot side temperatures can soar with  1800 degree fahrenheit winds blowing  over it at 600 miles per hour  over on the cold side vaporized iron  forms clouds that rain down ferrous  metal  in other words it hails metal number  four  osiris comet me bro  named after the egyptian god of the  underworld osiris is a gas planet that  loves first place  it was the first to be discovered via  the transit method the first planet  detected in more than one manner  the first discovered with an atmosphere  the first to have its atmosphere studied  in detail  the first to contain both hydrogen and  oxygen and way too many others to list  what a mouthful surprisingly its  atmosphere comprises of oxygen despite  being eight times closer to the sun than  the closest planet to our sun  mercury a solar year lasts just 3.3  earth days  as this ball of oxidizing burning hot  gas is bombarded by solar activity  the cosmic wind is so fierce that parts  of the atmospheric gas are ripped off at  fifteen  thousand five hundred fifty miles per  hour carbon and oxygen  follow the planet around its short orbit  like a tail on a comet  hanging on for dear life courtesy of the  planet's gravitational force  number three korot xo3b  time to go on a diet imagine a planet  the same size as jupiter but  20 times as dense the gravity in such a  place is 50 times stronger than that  here on earth  to give you a mental picture stepping  foot on this planet would turn you into  an  instant pancake courtesy of the  absolutely insane force pulling you down  towards the planet's core  it's a cheeky entry as scientists aren't  exactly sure whether to classify this as  an  exoplanet or a failed star it's a  mystery how either a star  or a planet could form so densely while  being so close to a huge  super-dense star sitting at the center  of its system  number two 55 cancery e  two faced mercury is the closest planet  to our sun  it's a hot little ball of rock but  nothing compared to 55 cancer e  the planet has zero rotation around its  x-axis but instead spins sideways  it's in such close proximity to its star  that it gets no day  no night and technically shouldn't be  able to exist  the backside is shaded dark and has not  seen a ray of light for millions of  years  the front half on the other hand is the  complete opposite  it spent eons absorbing the intense  light brutal ultraviolet rays and  ionizing gamma and x-rays spewed out by  its solar neighbor  the net result is one half of the planet  is a sea of molten rock  and rivers of lava while the other is a  cold desert  number one kepler-7b  getting hot in here blue stars burn hot  and when they're at the end of their  lives they explode and expand  rapidly outwards forming a red giant  during this transformation  nearby objects are destroyed in the  blast not the case for kepler-70b  the red giant consumed the planet but  somehow it still remains intact  what's left is arguably the hottest  planet we've discovered so far  a cranking hot ball of inert rock that's  held together with cosmic duct tape and  sheer force of will  the surface temperature is hotter than  our sun  that's over 12 000 degrees fahrenheit  though it survived this long in the  belly of the beast  it's slowly being dissolved in the  digestive juices of the dying star  and will likely be eroded away to  nothing well before the inevitable  supernova blows it to kingdom come