Some Weird and Wonderful Exoplanets

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

Earth is a pretty weird planet. A disproportionately large moon. Lots of life. Lots of oxygen.

But to us, it’s kind of the standard for a planet. So, what about some of the really weird exoplanets we’ve discovered. (Or maybe not discovered. If it’s inhabited, we probably need a different term).

Let’s go through some of the really fun ones!

KELT-9b

This is a gas giant that is tidally locked and orbits a blue A-type star. It’s really, really close to the primary.

In fact, KELT-9b is hotter than most stars. It’s so hot that molecules on the day side are ripped apart. It’s so hot that it’s 2.8 times more massive than Jupiter…but only half as dense. It’s year is 2 days long…and each season lasts 9 hours. Oh, and it orbits perpendicular to the spin axis of the star. We don’t know why yet.

Point is…it’s hotter than most stars. Nothing can live on that. Nothing any of us can imagine.

55 Cancri e

5 times the size of Earth and it’s…molten. The entire planet is one giant, hot lava field. The horizon burns. It has a sister planet that looms in the sky. It’s year is less than a day.

And it’s sky sparkles…because the clouds are made of silicates. On the dark side, anyway. They…