NASA Just Discovered the Strangest Planet in the Universe. What Is It?
Intro Scientists have been exploring the evolution
of our universe for decades, trying to gain a better understanding of the cosmic phenomenon
exhibited by the celestial bodies that occupy space. They've found planets that come in
all shapes and sizes, from small dwarf planets to massive gaseous planets, with some sharing
similarities but many having their own unique characteristics that set them apart from the
rest. Let's take a look at the strangest planets ever discovered by NASA.
What are Exoplanets? Exoplanets are planets that lie beyond our
solar system and revolve around other stars many light-years away. In the past two decades,
thousands have been discovered, most of them with NASA's Kepler Space Telescope. Many of
these planets take the namesake of this telescope – the Kepler-10b was one of the first confirmed
terrestrial planets to be discovered outside of our solar system. It is incredibly close
to its star, Kepler 10. The discovery of this planet excited scientists as it was the first
confirmation of an exoplanet. NASA's Kepler mission has already identified
more than 5,000 potential exoplanets – with the discoveries expected to continue to grow
over time. These many newly discovered worlds come in a variety of materials and orbits.
Some are gargantuan gas worlds that dwarf Jupiter. Others, rocky and icy, barely skidding
past their roaring suns. NASA and other space agencies are interested in discovering a variety
of planets, but one such kind has also sparked their interest – planets within the habitable
zone where liquid water oceans could be formed. However, the boundaries of what's habitable
and what's even possible in the universe seem to change every day. Strange compositions
we thought impossible are being discovered all the time and with an average estimate
of 1 trillion planets in just our galaxy alone, we haven't even begun to scratch the surface.
GJ 1214b Astronomers first discovered GJ 1214b in December
2009 and according to NASA, it's only the second super-Earth exoplanet for which astronomers
have determined the mass and radius. The alien planet is said to be "about 2.7 times Earth's
diameter and weighs nearly seven times as much as our home planet."
Despite its supersized circumference, it was observed that a huge fraction of its mass
is made up of water, and the planet itself is enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere,
most likely generated from its soaring hot temperatures, which are estimated to be around
446 degrees Fahrenheit on the surface. It is thought that the high temperatures and
high pressures on the planet help form exotic materials like 'hot ice' or 'superfluid water,'
substances that are completely alien to our everyday experience. This fact highlights
GJ 1214b's unique properties that make it unlike anything seen in our Solar System or
any other planetary system currently known. WASP-107b
The WASP-107b discovery was announced in 2017 as part of a study led by D. R. Anderson and
a team of colleagues, published in the Astronomy & Astrophysics journal. It is described as
being a Neptune-like exoplanet that is about as big as Jupiter, which is 11 times wider
than Earth but carries only one-tenth of Jupiter's mass or about 30 times that of Earth.
The planet's ultra-low mass means it packs an extremely low density, which can be likened
to that of a marshmallow. For that reason, astrophysicists have frequently dubbed WASP-107b
to be a "super-puff" or "cotton-candy" planet, however, new research shows the exoplanet's
weirdness extends even further beyond its descriptors.
A more recent study found the planet's solid core to have "a mass of four Earths or less,"
with about 85% of its mass contained within its gassy atmosphere. These numbers defy models
for how gas giants are formed as it was previously understood that gas giant planets need "a
solid core of at least 10 Earth masses" to attract gas.
TOI-1431b NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite
first detected TOI-1431b in late 2019. Astrophysicist Dr. Brett Addison conducted a series of follow-up
observations with a team of astronomers using a Stellar Observation Network Group telescope
in the Canary Islands, along with other telescopes across the globe, to confirm the existence
of the fiery planet. TOI-1431b, also known as MASCARA-5b, was found
490 light-years from Earth by researchers at the University of Southern Queensland's
Center for Astrophysics. The gaseous ball of flames is one of the hottest planets ever
surveyed. It is described as an "ultra-hot Jupiter," though it's nearly twice as large
as its namesake, which is the solar system's largest planet.
The planet is noted to have a hellish atmosphere with a dayside temperature of about 4940 degrees
Fahrenheit and nightside temperature approaching 4220 degrees F. No life could survive in these
conditions. The planet's nightside temperature is the second hottest ever measured by NASA.
By comparison, the temperature of molten lava typically falls between 1286 degrees F to
2276 degrees F, so the planet is significantly hotter than that of hot liquid rock and greater
than the melting point of most metals, many of which turn to liquid under 3631 degrees
Fahrenheit. These blistering temperatures are almost the same as that of a rocket engine
exhaust. HD 189733b
HD 189733b was discovered orbiting the star HD 189733 in 2005, according to an Astronomy
& Astrophysics volume which details an exoplanet-search program that was launched to detect gas giants
that are most likely to transit their host star. NASA's catalog entry for the far-off
blue planet reveals its mass to be larger than Jupiter’s, while Jupiter has a mass
2.5 times that of all other planets in the Solar System put together.
The atmospheric alien world stands out in the vast dense darkness of the universe because
it has a bright blue marble appearance, which NASA says is generated from the planet's hazy,
blow-torched atmosphere containing clouds laced with glass that rains – sideways – when
combined with the ferocious winds that blow up to 5,400 mph.
As well as the rain dropping like needles at a super high speed during the planet's
deadly downpours, those glass streams are also super-hot due to the proximity between
HD 189733b and its sun. Reports suggest that scientists have measured the nightmare world's
daytime temperatures to soar as high as 1700°F, making the rain feel less like water, and
more like molten glass. 55 Cancri E
Also known as Jenssen, 55 Cancri E is a planet located 40 light-years away and is most famously
known for being 1/3 diamond. This could be the result of an atmosphere that's mostly
carbon, allowing the heat and pressure from both its sun and its interior to compress
the planet's mass into a diamond. It is currently valued at 26.9 nonillion dollars.
Jenssen is tidal locked and has one side of the planet that always faces the sun and the
other which is perpetually in darkness. It’s so close to its star that water cannot exist
in a liquid state and instead exists in a supercritical state — a strange behavior
somewhere between a liquid and a gas. Whether on the ridiculously hot side of the planet
where temperatures reach 4,000 degrees F or in the dark “twilight zone”, there’s
no chance anything can survive on Jenssen. The added kick here is that the Hubble detected
what could be hydrogen cyanide oozing from below the planet’s surface, confirming the
presence of a superheated poisonous fluid on the planet.
Kepler-16b Perhaps the strangest planet discovered so
far is Kepler-16b. It is an extrasolar planet that was detected in the Kepler-16 system
during NASA's Kepler mission led by Laurence Doyle of the SETI Institute. The mission's
research team used the data from the Kepler space telescope to search for transiting planets,
and noticed "the brightness of this particular system dipped even when the stars were not
eclipsing one another, hinting at a third body." The team discovered that Kepler-16b
was in "circumbinary" orbit, circling two stars as opposed to one, which means that
the planet would have two sunsets if you could stand on its surface, much like Luke Skywalker's
home planet of Tatooine in the Star Wars saga. The discovery of Kepler-16b demonstrates the
diversity of the planets in our galaxy and broadens the prospects of what scientists
and filmmakers can conceive. The planet proves that scientific discoveries
can be more spectacular than anything we dare imagine. There is no doubt these discoveries
influence and inspire storytellers and scientists alike. Their very existence serves as a cause
to dream bigger and open our minds to new possibilities beyond what we think we know
about the cosmos. Kepler-16b is said to be "cold, gaseous and
not thought to harbor life." NASA estimates the planet to be about the size of Saturn,
a planet that is 9 times wider than Earth, but its parent stars are smaller and cooler
than our sun. Kepler-16b is thought to be made up of half rock and half gas but liquid
water could exist on the surface as it lies outside of its two stars' "habitable zone."
Outro The deeper we look into the universe the clearer
it becomes that our laws of physics and nature do not apply to the endless number of planets
out there. It is truly exciting to see what other strange planets will be discovered over
the years as more data becomes available to scientists. If you enjoyed this video, please
check out this one where we take a deeper look into the mysterious World of Gliese 1214-b.
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of the universe. Do you think humans will ever travel to one of these strange planets?
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