Beyond the well-known eight planets in our solar system lies a vast number of strange and extreme worlds waiting to be discovered – and some have already been discovered.
These celestial bodies, as scientists refer to them, are spheres of molten lava and vast oceans. They’re being combated by the intense heat of their respective stars, and others are trapped in perpetual darkness. There are planets that resemble those depicted in “Star Wars,” as well as other bodies that might harbor unusual forms of life, going beyond the imagination of even the wildest science fiction.
Join us on a tour of some of the strangest and most fascinating exoplanets in our ever-surprising universe.
I’m not aware of any information about a “hell planet” where it rains lava. However, I can tell you about the exoplanet that’s often referred to as a “lava planet” or the “hottest known exoplanet”: KELT-9b. It’s a gas giant exoplanet located about 650 light-years from Earth, orbiting a blue A-type star. KELT-9b is a scorching hot world with surface temperatures reaching as high as 4,312°C due to its close proximity to the star and its lack of atmosphere to insulate it. This results in not rain, but a steady flow of lava-like materials flowing on the surface due to the intense heat.
The exoplanet is located 41 light-years from Earth, making it a prime target for scientific studies (but not exactly a summer vacation spot).
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The water world with (potentially) habitable oceans.
The study found that JWST discovered possible signs of dimethyl sulfide, a chemical that is released only by phytoplankton here on Earth, in the exoplanet’s atmosphere.
The real-world “Tatooine”
This exoplanet is the first known circumbinary planet, a planet orbiting two stars simultaneously. The exoplanet somewhat resembles the fictional planet Tatooine from the Star Wars series, where the circumstances are a planet that orbits two suns. However, having a surface similar to Saturn’s gaseous composition would make it a challenging experience even for a seasoned explorer to stand their ground on this exoplanet, which is located around 200 light-years away from our sun.
The rule-breaking behemoth
Scoring higher than the sun in terms of heat seems unlikely, researchers said when it was discovered in 2023. Further studies of this “impossible” world may overturn the current understanding of how planets form.
What is the largest exoplanet discovered so far?
There are worlds out there. This remarkable world, situated approximately 1,200 light-years from our planet, features a very low density, giving it about one-third the mass of Jupiter.
The “fluffy” planet where it snows sand
Scientists have found clouds that could be made of fine grains of silicate particles, which might actually mean that it could rain sand on this unusual planet.
The “eyeball planet” with potentially living oceans
This distant world may be home to alien life due to its unique surface. Scientists studying the planet with the James Webb Space Telescope found that its surface may be mostly covered in ice, except for the part that’s constantly facing its parent star. The heat from the star may just be enough to melt a small amount of ice on that part, permitting a circular, liquid water ocean to form, according to the researchers. A feature like this would give the planet a distinct bull’s-eye appearance. The researchers suggest that this rare feature may be the perfect place for extraterrestrial life to thrive.
The rotten-egg world
About 64 light-years from Earth, scientists can easily identify a planet due to its unusual chemical makeup. A recent study using the James Webb Space Telescope found that this planet’s atmosphere contains a lot of hydrogen sulfide, a toxic and flammable gas that smells like rotten eggs on Earth, typically produced by decaying organic matter and volcanoes. Even though the planet is too hot for life, this breakthrough finding suggests that JWST may soon be able to detect signs of life elsewhere in the universe, which is a significant advancement.
“There’s no conclusive evidence to prove the existence of a planet called Planet Vulcan, in our solar system. This idea emerged from 19th century mathematics, specifically in the 9th century “Anagnosis of the System of the Universe” written by the Persian astronomer, Shiraz Adelkh. Later, French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier worked on the subject as well. Unfortunately for astronomers, numerous attempts to observe the planet yielded nothing. Today, this phenomenon can be explained by the precession of Mercury’s orbit due to the gravitational interactions with Jupiter. In conclusion, the hypothetical planet would be an inner planet, with a beyond-Earth-like environment.
Some scientists have questioned the existence of the exoplanet, as the starlight’s subtle fluctuations have been reinterpreted as evidence of the star’s own volcanic eruptions instead of the gravitational pull of a nearby planet. The validity of the existence of the exoplanet, named HD 26965 b, is now in question.
A planet that is similar to Earth and is located around a small star that is red in color.
The planet orbits a hot, red star about 40 light-years from Earth. Interestingly, the exoplanet has a width 1.1 times that of Earth, making it similar to our own planet. Although Gliese 12 B orbits its star much more closely than Earth orbits the sun (it completes a year in about 13 Earth days), the star itself is significantly smaller, keeping the planet within the habitable zone where liquid water can form on its surface. This means our far-off twin may also have its own form of life.
The Earth-sized planet that will never experience sunlight.
This planet orbits its small red star much too closely, resulting in an orbit of just 17 hours. Due to this close proximity, the planet’s atmosphere was likely stripped away a long time ago, leaving the planet lifeless. While the scorching temperatures aren’t global, the planet is tidally locked, meaning that one side is constantly exposed to the sun’s intense rays, while the other side remains in deep perpetual darkness.
The deep-red volcano world that’s “melting from within”
The planet is approximately 66 light-years away from Earth and orbits its star at a close distance. It completes one orbit around the star in just 2.2 Earth days. Research indicates that the planet’s surface is covered in molten lava, with numerous volcanoes erupting simultaneously. The planet’s proximity to its star, along with the gravitational pull of neighboring planets, may cause it to be torn apart at its core.
A gas giant with a characteristic bundt-like circulation system
The planet is tidally locked, with one side constantly facing its star and the other experiencing perpetual darkness. The vast difference in temperature between the two sides powers intense winds, scientists have calculated to be as fast as 5,600 mph (9,000 km/h), much quicker than a speeding bullet.
A world of contrasts, with a hellish landscape surrounded by resplendent rainbows.
Located about 637 light-years away from our planet, this world is not the type of place you’d want to vacation. Orbiting 20 times closer to its star than Mercury orbits the sun, the day side of this planet reaches a scorching 4,350 degrees Fahrenheit (2,400 degrees Celsius), making it a world from a nightmare. There is one draw, however: A strange bright spot observed on the surface of the planet, right at the boundary between the day and night sides, could be a “glory” – a rare visual phenomenon, sometimes seen on Earth, characterized by concentric rainbow rings forming a large circle.
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During our star’s final phase of expansion.
The wayward planets of the Orion constellation
Traveling through the Orion Nebula, floating freely from any star. Interestingly, about 80 of these lone worlds are trapped in binary orbits with each other, moving through space in pairs. Scientists are uncertain how these worlds were ejected from their home star systems or why they’re caught in binary orbits. Since these planets are roughly as massive as Jupiter, scientists have labeled them Jupiter-mass binary objects — or JuMBOs, for short.
The farthest planet that we can see.
For the first time ever, a gas giant, called 2M1207b, was discovered. It’s located approximately 170 light-years away in the constellation Centaurus. The massive planet is about five times the mass of Jupiter. The team made this groundbreaking discovery by looking at the planet in three different infrared wave bands. This revealed the planet’s heat while blocking the light of its home star. Since this initial discovery, approximately 200 other exoplanets have been found using direct imaging. Additionally, more than 5,000 other exoplanets have been discovered through other methods.
The planet called “The Crystal World” was essentially covered in dense clouds of microscopic quartz particles that suspended in the atmosphere.
There is a large gas giant like Jupiter that is an extremely hot planet, with clouds composed of quartz crystals, according to observations with the James Webb Space Telescope. It closely orbits its star, resulting in an atmosphere that has reached an scorching 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit (1,500 degrees Celsius). The intense heat creates small, grain-sized silica particles in the planet’s atmosphere, which may eventually come together to form clouds made entirely of pure quartz, researchers theorize.
The infant planet Jupiter about to come into being
Scientists have been studying the region around a star known as V960 Mon, which is about 5,000 light-years away from Earth. They used telescopes to spot a cloud of gas that appears to be flowing into two distinct, planet-like masses. According to the researchers, this is the first time they’ve been able to image a young star system on the brink of forming its first giant planets.
The planets aligned in tandem, appearing to move in perfect harmony.
A planetary body roughly the size of Jupiter appears to be orbiting its host star; trailing behind it is a massive cloud of gas and dust that researchers believe may be a partially formed companion planet. While only one of these objects seems to have fully developed into a planet, this duo represents the first known instance of “Trojan planets,” two celestial bodies that likely formed at similar times and locations around their parent star, each sharing the same orbital path.
The planet turning its star into a “spiral galaxy”
It resembles our own Milky Way galaxy, but on a much smaller scale. This is thought to be due to a hidden Jupiter-sized planet, MWC 758 c, using its massive gravitational pull to shape the star’s disk of dust into spiral arms. Astronomers believe it’s a likely explanation for the star’s unusual appearance, although the planet has yet to be confirmed.
There is a world that mirrors us, a place that shouldn’t be.
This planet has an incredibly high reflectiveness, reflecting a massive 80% of its star’s incoming light, making it the highest reflectiveness of any discovered planet. A layer of metallic clouds around the Neptune-sized world is the key to its remarkable albedo. Scientists think the sky of this planet is mostly made up of silicate, or glass, and titanate, a salt containing titanium, which turns its atmosphere into a real-life mirror. The existence of this planet is puzzling for scientists because it orbits so close to its star, yet its atmosphere should have been stripped away by now. The planet’s survival may be linked to the metal in its skies, which is too heavy for the solar wind to blow away.
The “zombie” planet that survived its star’s demise
This distant, gas giant, also known as Halla, is about 520 light-years from Earth. Its primary, Jupiter-like world should supposedly have been reduced to ash due to its connection with its home star, which has left its red giant phase, expanded outward and damaged nearby objects, only to return to its current dimension. Surprisingly, Halla orbits relatively close to the star, indicating the planet might have formed after the star recalculated its size, or what is visible today might be the result of two binary stars combining, caused both to rein in their explosive path.
The ocean-covered world with a steam-filled atmosphere
This planet is approximately 40 light-years away from Earth, but for a long time, scientists had been unable to get a clear look at it due to thick clouds of gas covering its surface. However, thanks to the use of the James Webb Space Telescope’s infrared imaging capabilities, scientists were finally able to see through the clouds and gather data on the planet. Their analysis revealed that the planet’s atmosphere is composed primarily of steam, which suggests that there is a significant amount of water on the planet below.
A planet that resembles Earth, but has no atmosphere.
It may be officially out of the running. JWST’s observations of the rocky, Earth-like world reveal that the planet is about as hot as an oven— a whopping 450 F (232 C) — and almost certainly doesn’t have an atmosphere. Some of the scorching world’s neighbors may be more likely candidates for life to emerge, but we need more research to know for sure.
The extraterrestrial sandstorm planet
Roughly 40 light-years from us, there’s a massive planet far out from its star. It takes about 10,000 years for it to finish one orbit around its star. This vast distance allows scientists to get a clear look at the planet’s atmosphere with less starlight interference. Recent observations have revealed extremely hot clouds made up of silicate particles swirling through the atmosphere, which may be proof of an enormous dust storm.
The planet that is hotter than a star.
This is an extremely hot planet, similar to Jupiter, located 670 light-years away from Earth. With a surface temperature of around 7,800 degrees Fahrenheit (4,300 degrees Celsius), it was found to be the hottest exoplanet ever discovered and is even hotter than some stars. Its intense heat has a severely negative effect on the planet’s atmosphere: On its daytime side, the heat from the nearby star beats down so strongly that the hydrogen molecules in the atmosphere are literally torn apart and scattered across the planet. With half of the planet’s atmosphere constantly melting, this world is definitely one destination you’d want to steer clear of.
The toxic football planet
It’s so hot on this planet that its heavy metals are constantly boiling through its atmosphere and being released into space. Scientists detected iron and magnesium molecules high above the surface, which were being pulled away from the planet’s gravity. The extreme heat is due to the planet’s extremely close proximity to its host star, which is so close that the star’s gravity has stretched the planet into a football-like shape, unlike the spherical shape of many other planets that have been discovered.
The incredibly tiny world is moving at breakneck speed.
Located among the smallest exoplanets ever discovered, this planet has a mass of only 0.4 times that of Earth. As it zooms around its home star, it takes a remarkably short two days and six hours to complete a full orbit. With its breakneck pace, the planet receives nearly 22 times more energy from its star than Earth does from the sun, making it almost certainly uninhabitable.
Earth’s “older cousin”
It looks incredibly similar to our home planet, making it similar to a cousin of Earth. The exoplanet orbits the same type of star that our sun is, and at a close distance, at just as distance as Earth. As a result, it falls into the habitable zone where liquid water can exist on its surface. However, we won’t be able to visit anytime soon: the planet is approximately 1,800 light-years away from Earth, which means it would take over 30 million years to reach with the help of a spacecraft.
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This event is a world with a diameter roughly 1.5 times that of Earth, which orbits closely next to a planet similar to Neptune called Kepler-36c. The two planets have extremely close approaches, about every 97 days on average. When they’re close, they’re separated by less than the distance between the Earth and its moon. These close encounters cause strong gravitational forces between the two planets, which may trigger active volcanic activity on the rocky planet Kepler-36b.
The unfortunate planet orbiting a minor star
Located about 32 light-years from Earth, this planet is unfortunate enough to have formed a mere 6 million miles from its host star – an extremely young and temperamental red dwarf. Estimated to be just 23 million years old, this star is a cosmic toddler compared to our own sun, which is a whopping 4.6 billion years old. The young star frequently erupts with intense blasts of radiation that are thousands of times stronger than the strongest solar flares emitted by our sun. Unfortunately, the distant planet is frequently affected by these powerful outbursts. Astronomers have observed large chunks of planetary material orbiting the planet, suggesting that the star is slowly stripping away bits of the planet’s atmosphere through repeated radiation blasts.
