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Today you will see Planet Nine and other awesome planets scientists are exploring, 15 most horrible planets in the universe, and 12 planets that make you wish you were an astronaut!
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00:00T.R.E.S. 2b, or not to be, is a planet where night never ends.
00:05And it's not your regular night with stars shining in the beautiful skies.
00:09Here, it's pitch dark and scorching hot.
00:12T.R.E.S. 2b is a gas giant, roughly one and a half times more massive than Jupiter,
00:18and its surface absorbs light better than charcoal.
00:22It might also have a faint dark red glow because of its burning air,
00:26which is as hot as fresh lava.
00:28Lovely.
00:30In the star system of 55 Cancri, there are five planets,
00:34four of which are gas giants similar to Jupiter and Saturn.
00:37But the fifth one, or rather the first, because it's closest to the star,
00:42is different in a most horrible way.
00:4555 Cancri e is so close to its sun that half the planet's surface is a literal ocean of molten
00:51lava.
00:52The other half is in eternal darkness because it never sees the sun.
00:56The planet has always turned to its star on one side.
01:00And between the scorching and the dark, there's the twilight zone,
01:04a thin strip of gloomy nothingness.
01:07That's a getaway spot.
01:11HD 189377b, I'm not gonna say that again, is the only exoplanet in the orbit of its star.
01:18And at first glance, it looks quite pretty, blue and white swirls making up wondrous patterns on the surface.
01:24But these pleasant colors actually come from hard silicate particles in the planet's atmosphere,
01:30which means it rains glass here.
01:33But the worst is that winds reach the speed of 5,400 miles per hour, or almost Mach 7.
01:40Well, for comparison, the fastest wind speed on Earth was 254 miles per hour, over 20 times less.
01:49Thus, the glass falling from the sky travels horizontally at hypersonic speeds,
01:54shredding everything in its path.
01:56Better duck.
01:58The next system, whose name I won't even try to pronounce, um, this one,
02:02has three exoplanets, which are all being slowly destroyed by their own star.
02:07It happens because that star is not a regular.
02:11It's a pulsar, a rapidly spinning core of an exploded star.
02:15It creates powerful electromagnetic pulses in several directions,
02:19while rotating at several thousand times per second.
02:22As a result, the planets orbiting this deceased star are slowly being eaten away,
02:28and will eventually disappear entirely.
02:31Kepler-70, hey, I can say that one,
02:33is a hot blue dwarf star that exploded into a red giant some 18 million years ago.
02:39At the time, it was orbited by at least two planets,
02:43the closer of which was a Jupiter-like gas giant.
02:46Its name was Kepler-70b, and it still exists.
02:50But the overgrown star consumed it and transformed it into a blazing hot rocky world.
02:55Right now, it's one of the hottest planets ever discovered.
02:58Its temperature is higher than the surface of our Sun.
03:01It was lucky to survive spending time inside the star,
03:05but it's evaporating now, and will probably be no more in the near future.
03:10Wasp-12b is one of the weirdest and saddest planets out there.
03:15The enormous gravity of its star, combined with the planets consisting mostly of gas,
03:20result in the star slowly devouring its protege.
03:24Uh, so pal, like, uh, what's eating you?
03:27My mother.
03:29Wasp-12b has already taken the form of an egg,
03:32stretched toward its merciless sun,
03:34and it's unable to do anything with its condition.
03:37In another 10 million years,
03:40the planet will inevitably succumb to the voracious star's appetite.
03:44Hey, you asked.
03:45If you ever wondered what it's like to walk on ice and hot coals at the same time,
03:51Gleecy 436b is a planet that would give you a vivid example.
03:56Being extremely close to its sun,
03:58the Neptune-sized exoplanet boasts temperatures hotter than a blazing oven.
04:03And yet, it's covered in ice, which burns incessantly.
04:07This ice is much denser due to the enormous gravity of the planet,
04:11staying solid even under extreme conditions and not melting away.
04:16No list of frightening worlds could do without mentioning Venus,
04:20the Earth's evil twin.
04:23The second planet from the sun has an atmosphere so thick and full of clouds
04:28that its surface is much hotter than that of Mercury.
04:31Volcanic eruptions constantly thrash Venus.
04:34Its gravity is almost 100 times stronger than ours.
04:38And those clouds I mentioned are not made of water,
04:40but of sulfuric acid,
04:42which condenses and rains down on the ground, adding to the inferno.
04:47But even if you were brave, or crazy,
04:50enough to try to pass through these clouds,
04:52you probably couldn't.
04:53The winds up there are as strong as some of the most powerful hurricanes back on Earth.
04:59Here we have a very long name for a very, very cold planet.
05:03Although the host star is not too far away,
05:05it's a small and rather cool red dwarf,
05:08whose light and heat barely even reach the planet.
05:11The temperatures out there fall as low as minus 370 degrees,
05:16which is only marginally warmer than absolute zero.
05:19The exoplanet is thus dark, gloomy,
05:22and covered in eternal ice that never thaws.
05:25I thought I thaw that Thumbworth!
05:28Still, if it has a rocky core,
05:30it might generate some heat.
05:32So, there's a chance that deep below the frozen surface,
05:35some unknown alien things might lurk.
05:40Dimitium, located roughly 50 light-years away from our solar system,
05:44is a planet hostile to any living thing on many accounts.
05:48It's tidally locked to its sun,
05:50which means one of its sides is always facing the star,
05:54while the other is always turned away.
05:56The hot side is heated to over 1800 degrees,
06:00perpetually blown over with winds reaching 600 miles per hour.
06:04And that's winter!
06:05Well, actually, I don't know that.
06:07Despite dimitium being a gas giant,
06:10it has a large amount of iron in it,
06:12which melts and evaporates in the atmosphere,
06:14creating clouds.
06:16And when those cool down,
06:18they fall on the surface in the infernal rain of molten iron.
06:22That'll test your metal.
06:24Oxygen is usually viewed as an element
06:26that might bring life to a planet.
06:28But this is definitely not the case for Osiris.
06:32Scientists were shocked to find oxygen on this planet,
06:35or rather around it,
06:36because it's eight times closer to its star
06:39than Mercury is to the sun.
06:40This extreme distance makes Osiris a living melting pot,
06:45where anything that could burn will.
06:47It's also responsible for a very short orbit
06:50of the planet around the star.
06:51A year on Osiris is just three and a half days on Earth.
06:55To boot, the atmosphere of the planet
06:57is constantly blown and melted away
07:00by the heat from its sun.
07:01Vacation?
07:02Nah, let's keep looking.
07:05Karat Exo-3b is neither as hot nor as cold
07:09as some of the others on this list,
07:11but it's terrifying in its own more insidious way.
07:14It's a gas giant similar in size to Jupiter,
07:17yet 20 times denser.
07:19This makes this exoplanet's gravity
07:21weigh down on everything on its surface
07:2350 times more than it would on Earth.
07:26Stepping on it would be your ultimate doom,
07:29because you'd be immediately crushed
07:30by the density of its atmosphere.
07:33Karat-7b is another oven-like world.
07:36Its day-to-day temperature is over 4,000 degrees.
07:40Combined with the rocky surface,
07:42it presents an infernal landscape.
07:44The rocks on the ground bubble and boil,
07:46evaporating in the atmosphere,
07:48where they cool down and eventually fall back
07:51on the surface in a brimstone rain.
07:53The saddest thing about Karat-7b
07:55is that it might have once been a gas giant
07:58whose atmosphere melted away from the heat,
08:01leaving only the scorched core.
08:05Dark, mysterious, cold space.
08:08Comets, asteroids, planets, stars,
08:11and something that's lurking over there,
08:13far beyond Pluto.
08:15Yup, this could be the ninth planet of our solar system,
08:18the one people have been wondering about for centuries.
08:21IRAs, which stands for the Infrared Astronomical Satellite,
08:25collected interesting data back in 1983.
08:27It could be proof that Planet 9 is hiding there.
08:31No one knows if it really exists,
08:33but this discovery helped to build a model
08:35to understand this potential planet better.
08:38And in 2016,
08:40scientists found out that some small space objects
08:43in the Kuiper Belt were orbiting a bit oddly.
08:46The Kuiper Belt is the outer area of our solar system.
08:49It's a ring in the shape of a donut,
08:51filled with leftovers from the times
08:53when our solar system was forming.
08:55You can find this donut beyond Neptune.
08:57The objects in that region of space have weird orbits,
09:01almost as if a big body with strong gravity
09:03is pushing them away.
09:05Knock, knock, Planet 9 again.
09:07The theory says it might be 5 to 10 times
09:10the mass of our own planet,
09:11and up to 20 times further away than Neptune.
09:14The astronomical unit equals the distance
09:16between our planet and the Sun.
09:18Pluto is approximately 40 astronomical units from the Sun.
09:22But Planet 9, if it exists,
09:25is 400 to 800 astronomical units away.
09:28It would take 10,000 to 20,000 Earth years
09:31for this mysterious planet
09:32to make a single circle around the Sun.
09:35This makes it harder for us to catch the space body.
09:38There's a theory Planet 9 may have formed
09:41between the orbits of Jupiter and Neptune,
09:43similar to the rest of the gas giants in our solar system.
09:46The gravitational force of one of the two huge planets
09:49probably kicked it out of its orbit.
09:52Oh, no.
09:53Then, Planet 9 could get ejected further away
09:56from the eight planets we know about.
09:57It ended up as some sort of icy waste,
10:00quite small at the beginning.
10:02But as time went by,
10:04Planet 9 has cleared its orbit of frozen pieces of rock and dust
10:07and finally formed into a real planet.
10:10Another theory says that this could be a planet
10:12another star lost on its way
10:14while it was passing near our solar system.
10:17In any case,
10:18Planet 9 probably doesn't reflect that much sunlight
10:21since it's so far away.
10:22And astronomers aren't sure
10:24where exactly they should look for it.
10:26Space is dark, mysterious, endless.
10:29Obviously.
10:30But if we do find Planet 9,
10:32it will be the first solid proof
10:34there are more planets in our solar system
10:36than we thought.
10:37Moving on to an interesting exoplanet
10:40located only 90 light-years away from us.
10:42An exoplanet is generally a planet
10:44located outside our solar system.
10:47This one has an atmosphere with water clouds.
10:49One year there lasts 24 Earth days.
10:52And the planet travels around a red dwarf star
10:55which is way dimmer and smaller than our sun.
10:58That's why,
10:58even though the planet is
10:59eight times closer to its star
11:01than we are to our sun,
11:03the temperature there
11:03is similar to that on our planet.
11:05This exoplanet has a size
11:07similar to Neptune.
11:09It's also less dense,
11:10which means it's mostly made of gas,
11:13unlike Earth,
11:13which is made of rock.
11:15The average temperature there
11:16is 140 degrees,
11:18which makes it one of the coolest
11:19small exoplanets we've ever discovered.
11:22And the cooler the exoplanet is,
11:24the bigger the chance
11:25we'll find clouds in its atmosphere.
11:27Researchers have discovered
11:29more than 4,000 exoplanets.
11:31But all of them have been found
11:33within the Milky Way,
11:34at least until now.
11:35For the first time,
11:37astronomers may have spotted
11:38a planet outside our galaxy.
11:41They called it M51ULS1.
11:44The planet is located
11:46in the Whirlpool Galaxy,
11:48a distant spiral galaxy
11:4928 million light-years away from us.
11:52There was once a huge
11:53but pretty young star
11:54that got stuck
11:55in a gravitational dance
11:56with something
11:57that could be a dense neutron star,
11:59the collapsed core of a giant star,
12:01or a black hole.
12:02The star's dance partner
12:04had incredibly strong gravity.
12:06It was feeding on the star,
12:08greedily ripping away its plasma.
12:10Then, something unusual happened.
12:12An unknown,
12:13maybe even Saturn-sized object
12:15passed by
12:16and blocked this confrontation
12:17from our solar system.
12:19Now, no one can see
12:20what is going on.
12:21But this could potentially
12:23be the farthest planet
12:24we've ever discovered.
12:27There's a newly discovered planet
12:29outside our solar system.
12:31As large as Jupiter,
12:32it orbits two stars.
12:33And, as we can observe it
12:35from our planet,
12:36it crosses in front of them both.
12:38The full circle around
12:39these two stars,
12:40which means one year,
12:42takes approximately
12:43200 Earth days.
12:44On the day of the discovery
12:46of the previous planet,
12:47scientists also found
12:49it had an unusual companion.
12:51It's an extra-hot Jupiter
12:53with an ultra-tight orbit
12:54around its star.
12:55The year there
12:56lasts only 1.9 Earth days.
12:59This planet has a weirdly
13:00shaped orbit.
13:01Also, it travels
13:02in the opposite direction
13:03from the rotation of its star.
13:05If you could travel
13:0757 light-years away
13:08from our planet,
13:09you'd see something pink
13:10lurking in the darkness.
13:12As you get closer,
13:13it becomes bigger
13:14and more fascinating.
13:16Yup, it's a magenta-colored planet.
13:18A few billion miles
13:20away from its sun,
13:21this guy is one of the youngest planets
13:23scientists have discovered.
13:24It's only 100 to 200 million years old.
13:27It's made of pink gas,
13:29similar to our Jupiter.
13:30So, if you could fly
13:31closer to its surface,
13:33this gas would envelop you
13:35like a thick fog.
13:36You're coming closer
13:37and going deeper,
13:38and the gas is becoming darker,
13:40getting a reddish shade.
13:42And, look at the planet's core.
13:43It's super hot.
13:45Because of its high temperature
13:46of 460 degrees Fahrenheit,
13:48this planet is like an oven.
13:50The heat is the reason
13:51the planet glows so brightly.
13:53You'll also notice
13:54the sky is hazy pink,
13:56with clouds made of droplets
13:57of frozen water,
13:58similar to ours.
14:00There's another exoplanet
14:02half as massive as Earth,
14:03which is one of the smallest planets
14:05we've ever found
14:06outside our solar system.
14:07It has a diameter
14:08of 5,600 miles.
14:11For comparison,
14:12Earth's diameter
14:12is 7,900 miles.
14:14The planet in question
14:16is mostly made of iron,
14:17similar to Mercury.
14:19Mercury has a massive iron core,
14:21and a very thin crust,
14:22which makes it an oddball
14:24in our solar system.
14:25At its early stages,
14:27it collided with some space body
14:28at least once.
14:29That collision
14:30pulled its outer layers away,
14:32which is why
14:33only the firm iron core remained.
14:35Maybe this exoplanet
14:37participated in a huge space crash, too.
14:40That's what probably
14:41took away the planet's mantle,
14:42and left mostly its iron core.
14:45Or maybe this is just
14:46a remnant of a gaseous planet
14:48that used to be
14:49the size of Neptune.
14:50The atmosphere of the planet
14:51could be blown away by,
14:53let's say,
14:53a huge amount of radiation
14:55coming from the star.
14:56This planet is only
14:5731 light-years away from us,
14:59and the day there
15:00is less than
15:018 Earth hours long.
15:03The planet is only
15:04a little bit bigger than Mars.
15:06People aren't likely
15:07to ever settle in that place
15:08because of its extreme temperatures
15:10that go up to
15:112,700 degrees Fahrenheit.
15:13There might even be
15:14molten lava
15:15on the side of the planet
15:16that faces its star.
15:18Such temperatures
15:19are high enough
15:19to evaporate any atmosphere,
15:21so this planet
15:22might have had one
15:23in the past.
15:24Generally,
15:25gas giants like Jupiter
15:26can't support life
15:27because they have
15:28extreme weather conditions,
15:30temperature,
15:30and pressure.
15:31And there are no building blocks
15:33that might create life.
15:34But smaller terrestrial planets,
15:36such as,
15:37I don't know,
15:38Earth,
15:38have more key ingredients,
15:40like oxygen and liquid water.
15:42Plus,
15:42they have more temperate weather
15:44and other conditions.
15:45And still,
15:46not all of such planets
15:47support life,
15:48of course.
15:49It's not easy to find
15:50a planet with similar conditions
15:51as the ones we have on Earth,
15:53or at least,
15:54the conditions that would
15:55allow life to develop there.
15:57But,
15:57meet Kepler-22b,
15:59one of our most promising findings.
16:01It's 600 light-years away from us,
16:03twice bigger than our planet,
16:05and with temperatures
16:05of about 72 degrees Fahrenheit.
16:08This is a so-called
16:09super-Earth.
16:10It's a category of planets
16:12unlike any we have
16:13in the solar system.
16:14They're more massive than Earth,
16:16but still lighter than ice giants,
16:18such as Uranus or Neptune.
16:20Super-Earths can consist of rock,
16:22gas,
16:23or a mixture of these two.
16:25Kepler-22b is within
16:26the habitable zone
16:27of its parent star,
16:28which is less bright than our sun.
16:30The planet probably
16:32has a rocky core.
16:33It may have an ocean,
16:35but it doesn't host any life.
16:36At least,
16:37we don't know about it yet.
16:41An exoplanet is any planet
16:43inside our solar system.
16:45Some of them are free-floating.
16:47Those are called rogue planets.
16:49They move around the galactic center.
16:51Others orbit their host star,
16:53or two.
16:54For the first time,
16:56astronomers discovered exoplanets
16:57in the 1990s.
16:59Since then,
16:59scientists have found
17:00thousands of them.
17:02And now,
17:02you can sneak a peek, too.
17:04Spoiler alert,
17:05some exoplanets
17:06are pretty bizarre.
17:07Other resemble our home planet,
17:09and could probably support life.
17:12The closest to Earth exoplanet
17:14is Proxima Centauri b.
17:17It's a mere 4.2 light-years away from Earth.
17:20Recently,
17:21astronomers have found out
17:22that this world
17:22might resemble Earth
17:23even more than previously thought.
17:26It's only 17% more massive
17:28than our home planet.
17:29It orbits a star that is dimmer
17:31and less massive than the sun.
17:33Proxima Centauri b
17:34is in the middle
17:35of the star's habitable zone.
17:37This means that chances are
17:39liquid water and life
17:41might exist on the planet.
17:44It looks like the exoplanet
17:46is tidally locked
17:47with its parent star.
17:48This means one of its sides
17:50faces the star at all times,
17:52and the other
17:53is always in the darkness.
17:55Scientists haven't figured out yet
17:57whether the planet
17:58has an atmosphere.
17:59It's traveling too close
18:01to its star
18:01and completes one orbit
18:03within 11 Earth days.
18:04The radiation from the star
18:06might be pulling
18:07the planet's air away.
18:09If this is the case,
18:10Proxima Centauri b
18:11isn't likely to have
18:12liquid water on its surface.
18:17Glyce 832c
18:18is 16 light-years away from Earth.
18:20In the cosmic scheme of things,
18:22it's a stone's throw away.
18:24This exoplanet
18:25is five times as massive as Earth
18:27and travels much closer
18:28to its parent star.
18:30That's why a year on this planet
18:32lasts a mere 36 days.
18:34But since this star
18:35is a red dwarf,
18:36much cooler and dimmer
18:38than the sun,
18:39Glyce 832c
18:40gets as much light and heat
18:42as our planet does.
18:44At the same time,
18:46it's still unclear
18:47if Glyce 832c
18:48is similar to Earth.
18:49It probably has
18:50a much thicker atmosphere
18:52that creates
18:52a runaway greenhouse effect.
18:54This phenomenon
18:55occurs when a planet
18:57absorbs more heat
18:58from its host star
18:59than it can release
19:00back into space.
19:01This means
19:02that Glyce 832c
19:04is more likely
19:05to resemble
19:06scorching hot Venus
19:07rather than
19:08relatively cool Earth.
19:11Another Earth-like planet,
19:13TOI 700d,
19:15is 100 light-years away
19:16from us
19:17in the constellation
19:18Dorado.
19:19It orbits
19:20a small and rather
19:21cool dwarf star
19:22that is about
19:2340% of the mass
19:25and size of the sun.
19:26Its surface temperature
19:28is half as high
19:29as that of our star.
19:31The outermost planet,
19:32which is the very
19:33TOI 700d,
19:35is almost the size of Earth.
19:37It also sits
19:38in the habitable zone
19:39of its parent star.
19:40No flares from
19:41TOI 700
19:42reach the planet.
19:43This increases
19:44the chances
19:45of the exoplanet
19:46being habitable.
19:47This means
19:48it can potentially
19:49develop and maintain life.
19:52Scientists don't know
19:53for sure
19:54the exact conditions
19:55on the surface
19:56of the planet,
19:56but one of the
19:57computer simulations
19:58they've created
19:59shows a planet
20:00covered with an ocean.
20:02It has a very dense
20:03atmosphere
20:04dominated by
20:05carbon dioxide.
20:06Astronomers think
20:07a similar atmosphere
20:08surrounded Mars
20:09when it was
20:10a young planet.
20:11But another 3D model
20:12shows TOI 700d
20:14as an all-land
20:15cloudless world.
20:17That's what our Earth
20:18would probably look like
20:19if it wasn't
20:20covered with oceans.
20:21Winds on TOI 700d
20:24move away from
20:25the night side
20:25of the planet
20:26and meet in the area
20:27that directly
20:28faces the star.
20:31There is an exoplanet
20:33that stands out
20:34among the rest
20:34because of its
20:35awesome magenta color.
20:37You can find this world
20:38in the Virgo constellation.
20:40The planet
20:41is called
20:42Gliese 504b.
20:44The distance
20:44between this planet
20:45and its parent star
20:47is 9 times
20:48the distance
20:48between the Sun
20:49and Jupiter.
20:50The planet formed
20:52relatively recently
20:53and is still glowing
20:54with heat.
20:55That's why
20:56its surface
20:57looks pinkish.
20:59Just 20 light years
21:01away from the Sun,
21:02which isn't such
21:03a great distance
21:03when we talk about space,
21:05a bizarre rogue planet
21:06is roaming
21:07our home Milky Way galaxy.
21:09But even though
21:10this planet
21:10doesn't orbit any star,
21:12it still has
21:13an incredibly powerful
21:14magnetic field.
21:15It's 4 million times
21:16stronger than
21:17Earth's magnetic field.
21:18The exoplanet
21:20also produces
21:21amazing auroras.
21:22When it was discovered
21:23in 2016,
21:25astronomers were
21:26almost sure
21:27they had detected
21:28a brown dwarf,
21:29which is an object
21:30too large to be a planet
21:31and too small
21:32to be a star.
21:35But later,
21:37scientists received
21:38proof that the space object
21:39wasn't big enough
21:40to be a brown dwarf.
21:42The planet
21:43sure is a mammoth
21:44among its peers.
21:45It's 1.2 times
21:46as wide
21:47as the largest planet
21:48of the solar system,
21:49Jupiter,
21:50and more than 12 times
21:51as heavy.
21:53Astronomers think
21:53the exceptional
21:54strong magnetic field
21:55helps the planet
21:56produce the auroras.
21:58But the most curious thing
21:59is that they're generated
22:00in a different way
22:01than auroras on Earth.
22:03It might be
22:04because the exoplanet's moon
22:06helps the planet
22:07create these light shows.
22:10If you traveled
22:1120,000 light years
22:13away from Earth,
22:14you'd come close
22:14to a red dwarf
22:15in the Sagittarius constellation.
22:18Such stars
22:19are very cool
22:20and small.
22:21Quite far away
22:22from this cold star,
22:23there's a planet.
22:25The distance
22:26between this world
22:27and its host star
22:29is so great
22:30that the planet
22:30receives very little heat.
22:32It's one of the
22:33coldest planets
22:34ever detected.
22:35The average surface
22:36temperature on the planet
22:38is lower than
22:39negative 360 degrees
22:40Fahrenheit.
22:43That's why
22:44the entire planet
22:45is covered
22:46with a thick layer
22:47of ice.
22:48If you stepped
22:48onto its surface,
22:50you'd see nothing
22:50but glaciers,
22:51plains,
22:52and mountains of ice.
22:54And still,
22:55astronomers claim
22:56life might exist
22:57deep beneath
22:58the frozen surface.
22:59All because
23:00the core of the planet
23:01is likely to generate
23:02enough heat
23:03to melt some
23:04of its inner ice.
23:05In this case,
23:06there would be
23:07an enormous
23:07subsurface ocean,
23:09maybe even swarming
23:10with bizarre life forms
23:12on the planet.
23:14One of the oldest
23:15exoplanets we know about
23:17is PCR B162026b.
23:21It's about 12.7 billion years old.
23:24It's almost three times
23:25as old as Earth,
23:27which appeared
23:274.5 billion years ago.
23:30This also means
23:31that the Genesis planet
23:32formed only about
23:341 billion years
23:35after the Big Bang.
23:36The planet is so old
23:38that its two parent stars
23:40have had enough time
23:41to evolve into
23:42a white dwarf
23:43and a pulsar,
23:44making almost
23:45100 revolutions
23:46per second.
23:48Sunrises on this planet
23:49must look awesome!
23:52I bet the next exoplanet
23:55isn't like any other
23:56you might have seen before.
23:57It's often called
23:58Super Saturn
23:59or Saturn on steroids.
24:02That's because
24:04J1407b
24:05has a colossal system
24:07of rings.
24:07They're 640 times
24:10as large
24:10as those of Saturn.
24:12The bizarre world
24:13is 434 light-years
24:15away from Earth.
24:16It's the only planet
24:18we know about
24:18that has rings
24:19similar to Saturn's.
24:21If you moved
24:23J1407b
24:24to our solar system
24:25and replaced
24:25Saturn with it,
24:27its rings
24:27would look many times
24:28larger than a full moon.
24:32Astronomers have noticed
24:33a gap
24:34halfway through
24:35the planet's rings.
24:35The chances are high
24:37that an exomoon
24:38the size of Mars
24:39orbits the planet
24:40somewhere within this gap.
24:42If you lived on this moon,
24:43you'd have an awesome view
24:45every time you looked up
24:46into the sky.
24:48This exoplanet
24:50called
24:50Wasp 12b
24:51munches on the light
24:53coming from its star.
24:54It's one of the darkest worlds
24:55people know about.
24:57All because
24:58its dayside
24:59consumes light
25:00rather than reflects it
25:01back into space.
25:02The planet is giant,
25:04twice the size
25:05of Jupiter
25:06and it traps
25:06more than 94%
25:08of the light
25:08that reaches its atmosphere.
25:10This is likely
25:11to be the main reason
25:12for the insane temperatures
25:13on the surface
25:14of the planet.
25:15They can rise
25:16up to 4,600 degrees Fahrenheit.
25:19It's almost half as hot
25:21as the surface
25:21of the sun.
25:24Wasp 12b
25:25travels so close
25:26to its host star
25:27that it needs
25:28just one day
25:29to complete one orbit.
25:30Its night side
25:32isn't as hot
25:32as the day side.
25:34A mere
25:342,200 degrees Fahrenheit.
25:37Because of this
25:38difference in temperature
25:39water vapor
25:39and clouds
25:40gather above
25:41the surface
25:41of the planet.
25:42From time to time
25:44swirls of material
25:45from the planet's
25:45superheated atmosphere
25:46spill onto its star.
25:50About 4,000 light years
25:52away from Earth
25:52there's an exoplanet
25:54that might be
25:54one enormous diamond.
25:56It's five times
25:58the size of our planet
25:59but needs only
26:00two hours
26:00and ten minutes
26:01to orbit
26:02its parent star.
26:04It's a pulsar
26:05rotating at a rate
26:06of 10,000 times
26:08a minute.
26:10The planet is denser
26:11than any other
26:12we've discovered
26:13so far.
26:14It consists
26:14mostly of carbon
26:15which is so dense
26:17that astronomers
26:17think it might
26:18be crystalline.
26:19If it was true
26:20it could mean
26:21that at least
26:22some part
26:22of the planet
26:23is diamond.
26:25On WASP-76b
26:27it rains iron
26:28on the night side
26:29of the planet
26:30and the temperature
26:31on the daytime side
26:32rises up to
26:334,300 degrees Fahrenheit.
26:35That's hot enough
26:36to vaporize
26:37most metals.
26:39This exoplanet
26:41is a bit smaller
26:42than Jupiter
26:42and located
26:43640 light years
26:45away from Earth.
26:46Such terrifying
26:47weather conditions
26:48in this world
26:49are caused
26:49by its unusual orbit.
26:51The distance
26:52between WASP-76b
26:53and its parent star
26:55is 10 times shorter
26:56than the distance
26:57between Mercury
26:58and the Sun.
26:59That's why
27:00the star
27:00and the huge planet
27:01are tidily locked.
27:03One side
27:03of WASP-76b
27:05always faces the star
27:06and the other side
27:08is always
27:08pitch black.
27:11This bright blue
27:13exoplanet
27:13sits 62 years
27:15away from Earth.
27:16A bit larger
27:17than Jupiter
27:17it looks calm
27:19and peaceful.
27:19Its blue color
27:21might remind you
27:22of our home planet.
27:23But this familiar
27:24appearance
27:25conceals the planet's
27:26horrifying nature.
27:28The beautiful hue
27:29comes from
27:29silicate atoms
27:30and particles
27:31that make up
27:32the atmosphere.
27:33But the wind speed
27:34on the planet
27:35can reach
27:355,400 miles per hour.
27:38That's 7 times
27:40the speed of sound.
27:41The temperature there
27:42can rise up to
27:431,600 degrees Fahrenheit.
27:45But this isn't
27:47the worst.
27:47In this bizarre world
27:49it rains glass
27:50sideways.
27:52So it's probably
27:53not the place
27:53where you'd like
27:54to spend your vacation.