Space is a weird place- how weird? Well, how’s
planets made out of solid diamond and burning ice strike you as weird? Here’s 10
of the weirdest planets out there. 10. Every Day A Birthday Here on earth you have to wait
until you're 21 to drink legally, if you lived on Wasp-18b though that wouldn't
be much of a problem, as you'd only be waiting 21 days until you were legally able to
drink. Located 410 light years from Earth, Wasp-18b is only about 1.9 million miles
(3.1 million km) from its parent star, and its orbital velocity is so great that it
zips around its star in less than 24 hours. Wasp-18b moves so fast because of
its incredible proximity to its sun. The closer you are to a source of gravity,
the stronger the pull of that gravity on you. Therefore for a planet to remain in orbit
and not get swallowed up by its sun, it has to generate sufficient speed to overcome
the gravitational force of the sun. So basically, the closer you get to a star, the faster you have
to move or you'll end up falling into that star. Likewise, the further away you are the slower
you need to go to maintain a stable orbit. Of course living on Wasp-18b would be
a bit of a problem unless you were in a space habitat above the planet, because
Wasp-18b is 10 times Jupiter's size, and just barely falls under the category of a brown dwarf,
commonly thought of as 'failed stars' because they didn't get big enough to start fusion at their
cores or get their own reality tv shows. Also, due to tidal forces acting on the planet,
it'll eventually fall into its own sun, giving anyone living in its orbit
the worst sunburn in the universe. Speaking of speed and sunburn,
this next planet has both to spare. 9. Whiplash And Sunburn All At Once Weather can be unpredictable here on earth,
with the best weatherman barely able to tell you what the next week is going to be
like. However, weather on HD 80606 b is pretty predictable- if not the most extreme
in the galaxy. While at one point in its orbit you'll be enjoying balmy, Earthlike summer
weather, just a few weeks later you'll be cranking up the AC to hypermaximum as the
temperatures soar to thousands of degrees. That's because HD 80606 b has a very
eccentric orbit, resulting in an elliptical orbital path that dips it to just under 3
million miles at its closest to its sun, to 82 million miles at its furthest. This
eccentric orbit lead to scientists measuring a temperature change of 1,000 degrees fahrenheit
(500 C) to 2200 degrees (1200 C) in just six hours. Such severe temperature swings lead
to “shock wave storms” that propel superheated winds at 15 times the speed of sound, absolutely
shredding anything that might get in their way. Scientists believe that the influence of
another star 1,000 astronomical units away- or 1,000 times the distance from the sun to
the Earth- is to blame for the extreme orbit, which is also inclined 90 degrees in a similar
fashion to Halley's Comet in our own solar system. This next planet would make you and every
descendant you have until the end of time rich beyond your wildest dreams-
if it doesn’t kill you instantly. 8.Galactic El Dorado The legend of El Dorado tells of a secret
city made of pure gold, worth trillions to whoever could find it and plunder its riches.
Turns out, our galaxy has something much like that- only on the size of an entire planet.
Also, it's not made of gold- but pure diamond. PSR J171901438b, which we'll just
call 1438b for now if you don't mind, is without a doubt one of the strangest
objects in the sky. Also it's worth more than all the wealth generated by mankind in all
of history. But before you can even think about landing on a planet made out of diamond,
you have to contend with its parent star. This planet's star is actually a neutron star, or
the remnants of a supermassive star that could've been as much as 25 times the size of our own sun.
At some point, this giant star blew its top in a massive supernova explosion, leaving behind its
superdense core. How dense? A single teaspoon of a neutron star's material would weigh a billion tons
here on Earth. Stray too close into this star's gravity field and you'll never leave it again-
so landing on 1438b is probably not an option. Even if you did manage to land
on 1438b though, its parent star isn't done trying to murder you. That's
because its star is also a pulsar, or a neutron star that emits beams of concentrated
radiation so powerful, scientists at first believed pulsars to be alien navigation beacons
guiding their ships through intergalactic space. Most pulsars have a rotational speed of just a
few seconds, washing everything in reach with intense radiation dozens of times a minute.
However, millisecond pulsars make regular pulsars look like they're not even trying. These
stars can rotate in a matter of milliseconds, with the fastest recorded pulsar rotating in 1.6
milliseconds. 1438B's star isn't quite that fast, but it still rotates about 10,000 times per
minute, basically machinegunning the surface of 1438b with extreme radiation that even the
best shielded space suit won't save you from. So you can basically forget about striking it rich with the Milky Way's very own El Dorado.
But how did this diamond planet form? Scientists believe that 1438b was once as large as
Jupiter, but had its outer layers blasted away by its pulsar parent star. The core of the planet,
primarily composed of carbon, was left behind, which under extreme pressure would have
solidified to diamond or a diamond-like material. Given that any part of the
planet survived 1438b's parent star's supernova phase, it's likely that this
diamond planet was an extrasolar capture, flung out of orbit around its home system and
'caught' by the mighty pulsar that now guards its unfathomable riches.
The universe is old, but our next duo of planets just might
be the youngest ever spotted by mankind. 7. Baby Planets The galaxy is an old place, about 13.5 billion
years or just 300 million years older than the universe itself. However, the Milky Way is
basically still an infant, and planetary formation is still an ongoing process that we can,
for the first time, witness right here from Earth. First imaged in 2018, PDS 70b and C were
identified as protoplanets shortly after their discovery. Planets are born from the
slow accretion of material surrounding a star. Electrostatic forces begin to clump up material,
similar to the way static electricity can make your hair stand on end when you rub it with
a balloon. At a certain point, gravity takes over the attraction process and the planet-to-be
grows larger and larger as it pulls in more and more material towards itself. Once it has fully
cleared its orbital path of debris, the planet is considered officially 'born'- which is why
Pluto is not a planet anymore. Sorry, not sorry. However, images of PDS 79b and C made it difficult
to actually see the planets in formation. That's thanks to the thick clouds of dust and
gas still surrounding the growing planets. Then in 2020 astronomers figured out a way
to image the planets through their star's interference and the debris that surrounded
them, giving humanity a baby picture of two Jupiter-like gas giants in formation and making
them some of the youngest planets ever discovered. Our next planet has scientists
buzzing with excitement, because it just might hold extraterrestrial life. 6. Waterworld, Not Starring Kevin Costner Not too long ago we used to think that
water, which is so abundant on our planet, was rare in the galaxy. Then we discovered
that our own solar system was lousy with it- even discovering it inside craters on
Mercury, the closest planet to the sun. If that wasn't enough, the discovery of GJ
1214b should end anyone's doubts that water is pretty abundant across the universe, which
is great news for the possibility of alien life. Known as a 'waterworld', GJ 1214b is
believed to be completely covered by water, thanks to measurements of its density being
very close to the density of water. A thick, humid atmosphere envelops the
planet, which is somewhere in size between the Earth and Uranus,
and a lot cleaner than the latter. GJ 1214b is believed to have formed far out from
its parent star where water ice was abundant, and then gradually pulled in closer to its star
where it rests now. Due to the abundance of water and scarcity of rock on this planet, scientists
predict we could discover all kinds of exotic materials such as 'hot ice' or 'superfluid water'.
On our next planet temperatures get so hot that the clouds are made out of rock. 5. Rock Atmosphere You heard that right, our next strange planet has
an atmosphere made of rock. Well, vaporized rock. Corot-7b was discovered way back in 2010, and
at the time was one of the smallest planets discovered. 70 percent larger than
the earth and 4.8 times Earth's mass, that still makes Corot-7b a pretty
big boy- or super earth. However, you can forget about Corot-7b being
super-habitable, because it's super-not unless you enjoy temperatures that can melt
steel and breathing in vaporized rocks. 60 times closer to its parent star than the Earth,
Corot-7b experiences temperatures so extreme that its rocky core actually vaporizes into a thin
atmosphere, which is then inevitably blasted away by its sun. over the course of its lifetime, the
planet- which is believed to be the remnants of a saturn-sized planet- has had as much as several
earth masses of material already vaporized and blown away into space. A long time ago, Corot-7b
was likely much further away from its sun, but as it lost mass it migrated closer to its
sun, sealing its ultimate fate. Over time, the entire planet may disintegrate away
until no evidence of its existence is left. Our next planet is actually
hotter than some stars. 4. Planet With Dreams Of Being A Star At a certain point it gets very difficult to
tell the difference between a planet and a star, and no planet yet discovered pushes the boundaries
of that distinction quite like Kelt-9b. At twice the size of Jupiter, this massive planet is
already big enough to enter star territory, but its the incredible temperature of the planet
that really makes you consider if Kelt-9b is in fact, a planet. Receiving 44,000 times more energy
from its sun than we do from ours, Kelt-9b has a daytime temperature of 7,800 degrees (4300 C),
which is hotter than the surface of some stars. Tidally locked to its star, the way the
moon is to us, Kelt-9b is in a polar orbit, whizzing over it's star's poles every 36
hours. Given its rotation and orbital speed, Kelt-9b actually experiences two summers and
two winters per 36 hour 'year', with each season lasting just nine hours. For those viewers of
ours getting ready for summer break from school, imagine if your vacation only lasted a measly
four hours and be glad you don't live on Kelt-9b. Also because, you know, you'd instantly be
vaporized by the star-like temperatures. Our next planet is without a doubt,
the most beautiful ever discovered. 3. If You Liked It You Should've
Put Several Thousand Rings On It Saturn is the absolute crown jewel of the solar
system, with its beautiful ring system the planet is awe inspiring and never fails to wow every
time scientists release new photos of it. However, while Saturn may be the cock-of-the-walk in our
solar system, there's a planet out there that is overcompensating so hard, it makes Saturn look
like an intergalactic Walmart jewelry counter. J1407b is a brown dwarf, or failed star,
that's bigger than Jupiter. However, what's truly incredible about this planet is
the massive ring system that surrounds it, spanning out to a distance of 74 million
miles (120 million km)- or nearly 2/3 the distance of the earth to the sun.
It's ring system is 200 times larger than Saturn's and contains as much as an
entire Earth's mass in dust particles. Astronomers have already identified one gap
in the massive ring system, which is almost certainly the formation of a moon somewhere in
size between the Earth and Mars. Over the next few million years this impressive ring system
will slowly fade from view as more moons form out of all the collected dust- which means if
humanity wants to see one of the most stunning sights in the universe for itself, it better start
inventing faster than light travel like yesterday. Our next planet was a candidate
for advanced alien life so good, that scientists immediately radioed
it hoping to make contact with E.T. 2. Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell In 2007 the discovery of Gliese 581c excited
astronomers and scientists around the world on the hunt for alien life. Only a few masses
larger than our own Earth, Gliese 581c is smack dab inside its star's habitable zone- meaning
that liquid water is possible on the surface. With such similarities, surely there's a
good chance Gliese 581c may be habitable. However, closer examinations of this planet
revealed that it was tidally locked to its parent star, and orbits so close that the
daytime side would be a scorching hellscape, while the night time side would be a frozen
wasteland. However, along a thin band of terrain between the two extremes, where
the land is bathed in a perpetual sunset, temperatures are believed to be moderate enough to
allow liquid water, and thus life. Unfortunately the huge temperature differences would mean that
weather would be very extreme on Gliese 581c, so if life does exist it better have some way of
withstanding hurricane-force winds every single day. This would not bode well for technologically
advanced life, though SETI scientists beamed a hello message to the planet anyways, which
won’t reach any potential listeners until 2029. Our number one planet is so weird, it
basically turns everything you know about physics upside down.
1. A Place Where Ice Burns Ice. We're doing our damn best to make
it extinct on our own planet's oceans, but still enjoy it in cool summer drinks. However, put some ice from Gliese 436b in your cup
and you'll instantly boil your drink away, pretty promptly followed by your cup and
hand. That's right, on Gliese 436b ice burns. Wait, what?
Gliese 436b orbits its parent star in just over 2 days, which means it either violates
all the laws of physics or is very, very close to its star. Given that planets are so far obedient
to physics, the safe deduction is that Gliese 436b is as close to its sun as one-thirteenth the
distance from Mercury to our own sun. This puts surface temperatures at an estimated 980 degrees
(526 C), well above the boiling point of water. Despite this, Gliese 436b is believed to
have an icy covering around its rocky core, with the ice so hot that it would
incinerate any refrigerator you tried to put it in. If ice as hot as
the devil's balls is strange to you, it was strange to scientists too who theorized
that the ice remained solid due to the incredible gravity of the planet compressing water
vapor in its atmosphere into solid form. Ready for more space mysteries?
Go watch Mystery Space Events That Astronomers Can't Explain!
Or watch this other video instead!
