The Starship Enterprise's mission is to explore strange new worlds, but some of the “strange
new worlds” are exoplanetary horrors, likely to frighten even Captain Jean-Luc Picard back
into his shuttlecraft.
Howdy planetary bodies, Trace here for DNews.
Out there, in the deepest corners of our galaxy, are some of the most amazing exoplanetary
discoveries.
We’re finding alien worlds orbiting two stars; possibly Earth-like planets that may
host life; we’re even detecting clouds condensing in the atmospheres of exotic hot Jupiters!
It’s an amazing and PROFOUND voyage of discovery.
But often, as we get familiar with some of these exoplanets, they sound downright HORRIFIC.
For example, 55 Cancri e might be oozing and poisonous!
Located about 40 light-years away, this exoplanetary scare fest is known as a super-Earth, 8-times
the mass of Earth.
It's really hot because it's so close to it's star; so hot, in fact, that water and other
fluids can’t exist in a liquid state.
After taking density measurements of this hot world, astronomers realized that these
fluids could be in what is known as a “supercritical state” -- meaning the fluid is so hot and
under so much pressure that it's acting crazy.
And this exotic fluid might be oozing from below the surface of 55 Cancri e!
And it that weren't scary enough, the Hubble detected possible hints of hydrogen cyanide.
So yeah, this thing might ooze superheated fluid that is POISONOUS!
But it's not alone in it's freakiness.
Do you remember that scene from “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark” -- when
they open the Ark of the Covenant and everyone’s faces melt off.
Well, that's the life of CoRoT-2a.
This poor exoplanet suffers a similar fate every.
single.
day.
This “hot-jupiter” exoplanet orbits really close to its star and has become bloated due
to extreme heating, but the powerful X-rays blasting from its star cause an estimated
5 million tons of material to be shed into space off the planet EVERY SECOND.
That’s pretty nasty.
You might be thinking, when is CoRoT-2a going to just disappear then!?
We're not sure... but the Kepler-19 star system might have a ghost planet!
Around 650 light-years from Earth, an exoplanet called Kepler-19b has been spotted.
It has a strange orbit where it occasionally speeds up and then slows down!
Like people before they call the Ghostbusters, orbital dynamicists would think "this is impossible."
Planets don’t just slow down and speed up all by themselves!
In reality, though, they can, but it means there’s a ghostly alien world that has gone
unseen, and its using its gravity to tug at Kepler-19b from afar.
Tracking the orbital oddities in exoplanets have actually helped us find MORE exoplanets
through a method called “transit timing variations.”
So really, exo-ghosts might be creepy, but they're actually kind of cool.
But a guy who was NOT cool is Sauron, the famous baddie from “Lord of the Rings.”
Remember the giant Tower of Barad Dur?
Okay, now look at this.
Is this the The Eye Of Sauron?!
Nope, it's the star system of Fomalhaut.
This star system has been the focus of lots of attention in recent years for its massive
planet Fomalhaut b.
It appears to have taken up residence in the debris surrounding a young star 25 light-years
from Earth.
The debris makes images of the star system look like the eye of Sauron.
So, even though Fomalhaut b is just a bit of dust in Sauron's eye, it’s a rare example
of a directly-imaged exoplanet!
We've literally taken pictures of this.
Look we know this is kind of a funny way to look at astronomy, but c'mon.
It's incredible to think that only about 20 years ago, we didn't know there were any planets
outside of our solar system, and now we've got potentially thousands!
With such a variety, some would have to be a hell on Earth.
Or… on whatever planet they'll be called.
If you like scary things, you might like scary video games.
But are those video games good for your brain?
Well, Science Channel answers just that with the show Your Brain On Video Games.
Check it out November 1st 9/8c on Science.
OK, so a planet you've heard a lot about lately is Proxima b. It's really close, it might be earth-like, maybe not.
Find out all the exoplanetary facts about this historic find in this video here.
What do you find most scary about space?
Is it aliens, supernovas, spooky exoplanets or just a deep, dark and vast unknown?
Let us know in the comments below and don’t forget to like and subscribe so you get more
DNews every day.