These Terrifying Alien Worlds Actually Exist
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.
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.
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