Intro
There are quite a few really scary places in our universe.
Most of them are cold worlds with no chances of life ever evolving there.
But even among all this gloomy diversity, some objects can be singled out that may rightfully be called the most dangerous exoplanets ever discovered by now and today.
I invite you to check out the most incredible ones.
Tres 2b
Shortly before Halloween in 2020, Nasa compiled a list of the most terrifying worlds.
Among others, they included six exoplanets.
Each of these objects environments is not just extremely harsh for any living organism.
Even finding oneself in their comparatively close proximity may prove to be fatal.
The first object on the list is a black gas giant designation Tres 2b.
This celestial object orbits the Star Tre S2, which is a yellow dwarf lying as far as 718 light years away from us.
Let’s take a closer look at it.
Due to some unique properties of the chemical composition of the surface of Tres 2b, the planet absorbs over 99 of all the light shed on it.
The nature of these properties remains a mystery, and chances are there are some chemical reactions taking place on the surface that we have never registered on any similar object before, and it is these properties that make tres 2b the darkest exoplanet on the astronomical map of today.
This gas giant was discovered on the 21st of August 2006, with more details on its characteristics obtained several years later.
The mass of Tres 2b is 1.2 Jupiter masses and its radius measures 1.27 times that of Jupiter.
The atmosphere is as scorching as 1000 degrees celsius, which gives the exoplanet a faint red glow like that of Ambis.
Still, in spite of its gloomy looks, tres 2b doesn’t really qualify to be called the most dangerous place in the universe.
There are many more objects lurking in space that are more terrifying than that.
Let’s see some more inhospitable ones.
Here is another exoplanet, designation 55 Cancri E. it lies in the system of a sun-like star, designation 55 Cancri A.
This celestial object was discovered on the 30th of August 2004 by the doppler spectroscopy method.
Let’s look at it in more detail.
The planet’s mass equals approximately eight earth masses and its radius measures 1.875 that of the earth.
55 concrete e is tidally locked, and so it is always daytime on one side and night time on the other.
That is why the side facing the host star is always heated up to a temperature reaching 2400 degrees celsius, with the temperature on the night side 1300 degrees celsius.
These values are so high, because the distance between the planet and its parent star is just 0.0183 astronomical units.
Besides, volcanism on 55 Cancri E, which is thought likely to be there, causes dust clouds emissions.
These clouds trap heat and effectively prevent it from escaping into space.
The planet’s orbital period is slightly under 18 hours.
As for the atmospherical makeup, there is helium and hydrogen registered in it.
There are also large amounts of carbon.
Incidentally, this element is likely to form thick layers of graphite and diamonds in the planet’s interior.
55 Cancri E isn’t the only object in the planetary system of its host star.
There are four other celestial objects orbiting it.
The environments on these are by far more hospitable, which is the feature by which the 55 Cancri a system differs from the following object.
Poltergeist
It is dubbed poltergeist or psr 1257 plus 12c.
This is an exoplanet lying in a Pulsar system.
The celestial object is located just 0.36 astronomical units from the system’s center.
This shows that poltergeist wouldn’t have survived a supernova.
That must have taken place before the Pulsar had been formed.
Consequently, the exoplanet is likely to have formed after this tremendous event, with the material for it coming from the nebula left after the explosion.
According to another hypothesis, the Pulsar may have formed after the merging of two white dwarfs.
Unlike with a supernova, this process isn’t always accompanied by a powerful blast.
Still, as this is the first object of its kind we have discovered, science cannot give a definite answer as to its origins.
The system with a celestial object lies 2 300 light years from the earth.
Its mass is approximately four times that of our planet.
As for its orbital period, it is around 66 days.
Incidentally, the outstandingly powerful radiation emitted by the Pulsar is enough to crumple any spaceship wanting to approach the mysterious exoplanet in its system.
Even with all these properties taken into account, portageist does not really qualify as the most dangerous exoplanet known to us.
Kepler 70b
On approaching it, an astronomical body may simply get destroyed, but it would get positively vaporized in close proximity to the following object: the reason for this effect is the extremely high temperature on Kepler-70b, which is the hottest exoplanet known to us.
The object orbits the sub-dwarf star Kepler-70, with a surface temperature higher than that on our sun.
It reaches 6800 degrees celsius.
The object’s mass equals 0.44 earth masses and its radius measures 0.76 that of the earth.
The celestial object’s orbital period is 345 minutes.
In other words, a day here is less than six hours long.
Interestingly, the exoplanet regularly passes another object in the system, Kepler-70c, at a distance of 240 000 kilometers.
To date, this is the closest that planets in space have been registered to pass each other.
The extremely high temperature on Kepler-70b could be accounted for by the fact that this object may once have been part of its parent star.
As for giving it the status of an exoplanet, it will take more evidence to confirm that it deserves to be given it, so this remains an open question.
It should be mentioned that Kepler-70b is not the only celestial object we know of that interacts with its parent star so closely.
Wasp 12b
Another object in similar conditions is the exoplanet known as wasp 12b.
This celestial body lies 870 light years away from our system.
Its radius measures 1.93 times that of Jupiter and its mass equals 1.46 Jupiter masses.
Wasp 12b is just 0.03 astronomical units away from its parent star.
Due to this close proximity, the exoplanet has a temperature reaching as much as 2200 degrees celsius.
The host stars, extremely powerful gravitation, slowly absorbs Wasp-12b.
Eventually, in approximately 10 million years time, the exoplanet is expected to be destroyed completely.
Bearing all this in mind, we will probably never delve any deeper into the nature of this exoplanet.
It would appear that studying worlds of this kind cannot be high on scientists list of priorities.
However, some of these objects may happen to have some really unique features.
Seemingly quite plain and ordinary worlds like that may conceal many more dangers than would appear at first glance.
HD189733b
When flying past the celestial body Hd189733b, for example, one might complacently think it a safe planet, as it resembles our earth by its looks.
But if one were to get as low as the level of its atmosphere, one would be exposed to some life-threatening dangers.
For a start, the object’s winds carry particles of silicate and develop velocities of 8 700 kilometers per hour.
Besides, the rains on this planet cause precipitations of molten glass.
The reasons for such hazardous weather conditions are extremely high temperatures and the atmosphere’s peculiar chemical composition.
Speaking about the exoplanet’s orbital period, it is approximately 2.5 days and it is highly likely that the object is tidally locked to its parent star.
As usual, a quick overview of its main characteristics: hd189733b is a bright blue gas giant orbiting an orange dwarf in the constellation Vulpecular.
It lies just 63 light years away from our system.
The object’s diameter is 1.1 times that of Jupiter and as for its mass, it is 113 that of Jupiter.
Interestingly, the distance between Hd18973 and its star is 30 times less than the distance between the earth and the sun and equals approximately 5 million kilometers.
Due to its close proximity to the parent star, it has a constant surface temperature of as high as around 930 degrees celsius on the dayside, with the temperature on the night side never dropping below 425 degrees celsius.
Immediately on being discovered, the celestial body became a subject of investigations in 2007.
Thanks to data obtained by the hubble telescope, scientists found out that hd189733b has a foggy atmosphere.
Interestingly, when the planet transits between the observer on the earth and its star, its atmosphere assumes a reddish hue.
This effect could possibly be caused by the haze in the atmosphere.
According to preliminary estimates, it consists of particles of iron silicates and aluminium oxide.
Apart from that, the information beamed back by the hubble telescope helped scientists establish that the planet’s atmosphere contains water vapour, neutral oxygen and an organic methane compound.
Additional investigations revealed the presence of carbon monoxide on the day side of the planet.
What prompted most questions, however, was the results of investigations revealing traces of methane of an unusual variety in the planet’s atmosphere.
This chemical element was shown to be in a peculiar fluorescent state when it emits electromagnetic radiation in the infrared range.
This state of the substance is indicative of some unknown activity in the atmosphere of the exoplanet, which still remains to be found out.
This is quite a clear-cut example of a situation when investigating an object like an exoplanet with an exceptionally harsh environment may yield unexpected results about some processes taking place there.
That will be a valuable contribution to science and, as the process of studying these worlds continues, they will remain no other than horror planets to us, as well as a solid reminder that we are more than just lucky to be the dwellers of our earth.
Dear friends, if you feel like hearing more about other worlds like these scattered across the universe, let me know in the comments, or else simply hit the like button and let’s keep in touch you.