while on the hunt for some new exoplanets scientists have come across what is perhaps
one of the strangest planets out there located around 434 light years from earth
j1407b seems to be giving our ringed neighbor saturn some serious competition with its abundant
rings and 10 to 40 times the mass of jupiter welcome to Factnomenal and in today's video
we take a journey to the strange new exoplanet that scientists just can't seem to explain
mankind's constant search for life beyond planet earth has opened up so many possibilities and
discovery of new worlds that a couple of centuries ago no one would have ever deemed such a thing
even remotely possible remember the days when schools would only teach about nine planets
in the solar system that is of course when pluto was still counted among the main planets
sorry pluto back then they were the only verified and widely known planets but today astronomers and
researchers have their eyes on something even more exciting and foreign exoplanets exoplanets simply
put our planets located outside of our solar system all the planets in our solar system orbit
around the sun while the planets orbiting around other stars are classified as exoplanets the first
ever evidence of exoplanets was seen way back in 1917 but back then they weren't recognized as such
and neither did we have the technology needed to confirm them then came the first ever planet
discovered and confirmed orbiting around a sun like star— 51 Pegasi b. Technically speaking Gamma
Cepheus Ab was detected first in 1998 however it was only confirmed as being an exoplanet
much later in 2003 ever since then the hunt for these exoplanets and rogue planets which are
planets that have been pushed out of their solar systems has not stopped the more we learn about
these planets the more insight we get into the evolution of planetary systems galaxies and even
our whole universe and observing other systems of varying ages is extremely beneficial for us to
better understand how our own system developed and evolved today we now know of over 4,000 exoplanets
and these are just the number that have actually been confirmed there's actually a longer list of
exoplanet possibilities that have been detected but are still waiting to be officially confirmed
or denied in fact it's been speculated that there are over 40 billion exoplanets present in the
milky way galaxy alone with a whopping 11 billion of them orbiting stars similar to our sun this
certainly makes us wonder just how much is really out there and how much more we're soon to discover
as exoplanets have become a hot topic in the world of astronomy with scientists researchers
and astronomers from around the world using the best of the best technology to try and spot new
worlds they've certainly come across some truly unimaginable planets let's start with Hd18973b
that's located only 64 light years away from earth don't be fooled by its deep blue marble-esque
appearance it's a true nightmare world with furious winds blowing at 8,700 kilometers per hour
you'd be cut into shreds by the planet's glass rain the delightful blue color is
only a reflection of the silicate as it gets heated up by the 1,300 degrees celsius surface
temperature to form the aforementioned glass rain Hr5183b on the other hand is known as the planet
with the craziest orbit at three times the size of jupiter it takes its own sweet time to orbit
around its main star 74 years to be precise in a bizarre pattern where it loiters on the edge of
its orbit and then slingshots back to the center or take celt 9b as an example where a year lasts
less than a day and a half which sounds far more interesting than 74 years but there's
a catch the surface is so scorching hot that it sizzles at 4,300 degrees celsius with atomic iron
and titanium just casually floating around in its atmosphere then again there's Tres2b which could
easily give anyone the chills it's orbiting its star nearly 750 light years away from us
in the constellation Draco it's the darkest exoplanet ever discovered suspended in space
like a black lump of coal scientists were shocked to come across the planet with the
help of the Kepler Space Telescope as it only reflects one percent of any light that hits it
speaking of spooky there's always TOI 849b which was discovered pretty recently in 2020 by nasa
it's stripped completely bare yes the exoplanet orbits so tightly around its star
that it's had its atmosphere blasted away what's left of it is just an exposed remnant core
now scientists have stumbled upon yet another bizarre world that they just can't seem to explain
for years saturn's been hailed as the ringed world and no doubt there are other planets with some
very peculiar and special features that make for an interesting study but astronomers are saying
they've now found the first ringed planet beyond our solar system and it's like saturn on steroids
if you thought the rings around saturn were huge then you're in for a treat called j1407b
this giant of a planet has a disk of a whopping 30 rings this super world is surrounded by a
series of halos that are estimated to be 200 times bigger than the ones we see around saturn
if the exoplanet were close to the earth or around saturn's orbit the stunning view would
dominate our night sky while imagining how amazing that would be matthew kenwary of the
leyden observatory in the netherlands said it would be huge you'd see the rings and the gaps
in those rings quite easily from the earth they would be several times the size of the full moon
so the exoplanet's discovery is quite an exciting one professor kenwury and eric mamajek
of new york's university of rochester were scouring through a database of millions of
stars that had been photographed by telescopes all over the world as part of an exoplanet search
project called superwasp typically it's not easy to spot exoplanets but there are several ways
to do it but on average worlds beyond our solar system are observed from earth through the changes
in the brightness of their central star as opposed to directly spotting the planet itself it's this
light that's partially blocked for some time when the planet passes between earth and its
main star in the case of j1407 astronomers who were observing it realized it had a strange active
light display that lasted almost two whole months data on the stars showed that after some time
in the middle of the year the light curve would go absolutely crazy and suddenly begin to
flicker and twinkle the team concluded that there had to be something blocking and obscuring the
light in this manner they needed a different way of thinking a different approach entirely
before finally realizing that it could actually be a ringed planet professor Kenwari stated
this is the first time somebody's seen such a giant ring system outside of our solar system or
any ring structure at all around what we think is a planet the data collected shows that the rings
begin at a distance of about 30 million kilometers from the planet and stretch out to a quite sizable
distance of 90 million kilometers as to what these rings are exactly made of that would most probably
be dust considering the fact that the planet is far too hot somewhere between 1000 to 2000 degrees
celsius and wouldn't have the necessary conditions to support ice rings like those that around saturn
professor can worry said that the planet itself is like a giant version of saturn or a super saturn
as they're calling it with its mass nearly 10 to 40 times that of jupiter j1407 the main star
around which the planet revolves is just about 16 million years old which makes it like a newborn
infant in terms of stellar age considering the fact that our sun and planet earth are almost 4.4
billion years old it's been a challenge for the scientists and astronomers to study the planet's
exact mass and measure it they've even discovered gaps within the rings which may indicate that
exomoon satellites may have formed there as well astronomers and research teams have been
observing the planet for a while even as far back as 2005 and multiple studies have been conducted
ever since with the most recent one being led by professor kenworthy and his team using adaptive
optics and doppler spectroscopy it was based on the older studies combined with new observations
and technology that they were in fact able to conclude that j1407 is no doubt being orbited
by a giant super-sized planet that happens to have a ring system which finally explains
the weird behavior patterns in its reflecting light all those years ago between 2005 and 2007
astronomers expected these rings will become thinner and thinner within the next several
million years and will eventually disappear as satellites form from the material of the disks
as of now all eyes are fixed on this exciting new exoplanet that could prove to be key in allowing
scientists to study the physical and chemical properties of satellite birthing disks like this
finding eclipses from objects like j1407b would be perhaps the only feasible way to study the ring
system and in fact researchers involved in the study have even encouraged amateur astronomers
to help monitor this super ringed planet so if you're an aspiring astronomer it's time to do some
exoplanet hunting it's no wonder that j1407b is being referred to as space's very own lord of the
rings and we can hardly disagree so what do you think what are your thoughts on this super saturn
exoplanet let us know in the comments and don't forget to smash that like button and subscribe to
the channel so you don't miss more videos from us thanks for watching and see you next time