The Most Horrifying Planets Ever Discovered

It would be difficult to find a person who had a deep and serious thought about the scale of outer space and our universe and didn't feel the utter chilling to the bone terror. Endless empty space, terrifying black holes able to practically erase matter, and trillions of strange worlds, exoplanets that are so distant and mysterious that they seem unattainable. Today we'll tell you about six incredible exoplanets with conditions that resemble real hell, just floating through space entirely isolated and some even fooling astronomers. First is Quorra 7b. First on the list is an exoplanet with a very exotic precipitation. And no, no umbrella will help you unless it's made from titanium. Meet Quorra 7b, a planet where it constantly rains rocks. The size of this unusual planet is just over 1.5 times the size of Earth. Its age is about 1.5 billion years. It's relatively close by, only 489 light years from us. Back in 2019 when Quorra b was first discovered, the scientists considered it the first rocky exoplanet that resembles Earth. However, we class it as uninhabitable with 0% probability of life on the planet. If you're ever lucky enough to watch the sunrise on this planet, the sunrise would be the last thing that ever happens to you. The rays of the morning star Quorra 7 from the monoceros or unicorn constellation will turn you into ash as soon as the sun appears over the horizon. The reason sunrise on this planet is so much brighter is due to the fact Quorra 7b is 60 times closer to its star than we are to our sun. In essence, the visible size of the Quorra 7 star is 360 times larger than the we see the sun. The temperature on the sunny side of the planet can reach 4,700 degrees Fahrenheit or 2,600 degrees centigrade, which makes the surface hot enough to melt and vaporize rocks. Next, something incredible happens. Hot vaporized rock rises to the upper atmosphere, where condensation happens, turning the vapors into fine gravel during the colder front passing, which leads to the small rock fragments falling to the ground, better known as the literal rock rain. Looking deeper into it, some theoretical models suggest you can come across the entire ocean of lava on this planet. The situation is made even more dire due to the fact the planet is locked in in this position, with the fire and sulfur side always facing the host star. At the same time, the other side of the planet is very cold, with surface temperatures reaching as low as negative 390 degrees Fahrenheit or negative 235 degrees centigrade. Astronomers think that Quorra 7b formed initially as a gas giant, which was 100 times larger than Earth, but as it moved closer to its star, the gas membrane was getting thinner under the influence of the sun wind, until all that was left was the rocky core. Such is the unenviable past of Quorra 7b, and the no less terrifying present. We hope the rough conditions of that world didn't put you off because we're moving on to the next planet. Although the next horrifying world doesn't have the same inferno-like conditions, it certainly fits into the category of places you never want to go near. Because trying to get to J1407b, you would come across an endless belt of rock and ice. It's tempting to compare this massive gas giant to our Saturn because it's surrounded by gigantic rings, except they're 200 times wider than the ones around Saturn. Saturn only has three main rings, J1407b has 30 rings spanning across over 110 million miles. Now let that sink in, that's 20% more than the distance from Earth to the Sun, which is 93 million miles, which is 1.2 astronomical units. For comparison, the radius of Saturn's largest ring is only about 300,000 miles. Rings of this scale only form thanks to mass destruction of a planet's satellites. So what might have happened? It's likely that the mass of J1407b is between 10 and 40 times the mass of Jupiter. That's a huge celestial body, the gravity of which just ripped the satellites apart. There's another theory that J1407b is not a gas giant, but an actual protostar that was never able to become a brown dwarf. Currently, there's no consensus in the scientific community as to how to properly classify such objects. Another argument towards the theory that J1407b is an incomplete star is the fact that the object moves along its orbit around the host star as opposed to around the mutual center of gravity like happens with a dual star system. What's amazing is that these huge rings have a mass of only 7.34 by 10 to the 21 tons. Why only? This impressive number is comparable to Earth's mass, 5.9 by 10 to the 21. In the history of J1407b could have been many amazing and frightening events, and one of them could have been a collision with a satellite with the mass somewhere between Earth and Mars. The trace of this encounter, a large gap in the rings of J1407b. Speaking of which, thanks to these gaps, the scientists managed to discover this planet. Using the transit observation method, the scientists managed to find out not only the size, but also the position of the rings around the planet. Take a look at the visualization of the Saturn rings. A truly magnificent sight. We can only imagine what kind of view we could have if we were on J1407b or one of its satellites. But this view would definitely cost us a jaw because ours would be dropped. Now we're heading closer to home. About 80 light years from the sun is an object that can be rightfully crowned as one of the loneliest in the universe. The interesting thing about the planet with a complex name PSO J318.5-22 is that it doesn't revolve around a star. PSO J318 belongs to the special classification of planets called rogue planets, sometimes called orphans or nomads. These planets are ejected from their planetary system and now they just wander through endless emptiness of space. Paradoxically, the absence of a bright star only played into the hands of astronomers. They can directly observe the light of PSO J318 without it being overshadowed by the host star. Since the surveillance is performed using the PS-1 panoramic survey telescope PANSTARRS, the excess light really hinders observation from Earth. It allowed to take hundreds of infrared photographs which revealed that the planet's eight times larger than our Jupiter and much brighter too. Shifts in its brightness showed that the planet does a complete turn every five hours and has several layers of thick and thin clouds with a temperature around 1470 degrees Fahrenheit. Surveillance performed by a group of astronomers using new technology telescope at the European Southern Observatory in Chile allowed them to create one of the first somewhat accurate weather forecasts for a celestial body beyond the solar system and now a quick weather report. We're expecting a cloudy but very warm day with dust storms several times the speed of sound and possible precipitation in the form of molten iron rain. The estimated age of the planet? It's around 12 million years old. Scientists don't know exactly how such planets are formed but they theorize that such objects were either unsuccessful stars, gas giants several times as large as Jupiter or planets ejected from young planetary systems after encountering another planet and under the influence of its gravitational field. After being cut off from the gravitational influence they don't return to their original system, doomed to drift through space until they're pulled into the gravitational field of another star system. As a result there's an issue with classification of PSOJ 318 and similar planets because many scientists tend to refer to such objects as sub-brown dwarfs, hinting at their temporary state. Not yet a star but not quite a planet, a gas giant either, at least as we know it. Although the scientists have records of quite a few rogue planets, this is only the beginning of their research. We're likely to be amazed by the news of the properties of these incredible interstellar objects in the future. We're moving on to witness the slow merry-go-round of death, a place where we'll find WASP-12b, a planet labeled by scientists as doomed. Being on its surface is impossible for a number of reasons with the most significant one being that the planet's literally torn apart by its host star, piece by piece, sending it out into the outer space. According to its characteristics WASP-12b is a gas giant with a radius about twice the size of Jupiter's. However, unlike Jupiter that performs one full revolution around the sun in 12 Earth years, WASP-12b fully revolves around its host star in one day. Such speeds create unbelievable tidal forces on the surface of the planet, causing it to distort. If the scientists' calculations are accurate, WASP-12b is shaped more like an egg than a sphere. Astronomers estimate that the planet won't be able to withstand such torture much longer, a maximum of 10 million years, after which the planet will completely fall apart, forming a gas and dust cloud that will be gradually consumed by the star. Furthermore, the planet speeds up as it exchanges matter with its star. Until this moment, the scientists thought this type of exchange was only possible between stars. The case of WASP-12b is the first confirmed case of this phenomenon happening to an exoplanet. This gravitational dance really heats up the planet, making it reach temperatures up to 4,100 degrees Fahrenheit, making any possibility of life on its surface obsolete. But, five years after the planet was discovered, the Hubble telescope managed to use the spectroscopy method to detect the signs of a water stream, an incredible discovery considering the conditions on this planet. The other shocking discovery is that the hard surface of this planet, if it indeed exists, can be made of graphite and diamonds. The reason for that is the high concentration and density of carbon in the composition of the planet. Some media outlets even nickname WASP-12b the diamond planet, but for now, scientists are more inclined to think the vast majority of the carbon is contained in the planet's atmosphere in the form of carbon monoxide and methane. Additionally, in 2012, research established that the planet may have a satellite, WASP-12b1. Its radius estimated to be 6.4 times the size of Earth's radius, which is only three times smaller than the radius of the planet itself. What kind of conditions are on the surface of the satellite, we can only guess. Probably not much better than its torn apart neighbor. And the next planet is surrounded by real mystery. We're talking about Formal Hot B, formerly known as Dagon, a distant world that didn't exist. Are you intrigued yet? Let's dig in. Let's go back to 2004. The Hubble telescope discovered a gigantic coal debris disk of gas and dust. Immediately, the theories about the object started circulating, including the estimation of the planet's size, which could be three times as large as Jupiter. Furthermore, the scientists still hadn't managed to get a look at the huge planet, which was supposed to rotate around Fomalhaut, one of the brightest stars in the night sky. Located relatively nearby at 25 light years away with a radius twice as large as the sun. Research showed that Dagon was behaving in a strange manner. The speed of the object kept increasing as time went by. Four years later, in 2008, the news that an image of Dagon was captured causing a real sensation in the scientific community. It was proven that the planet is much smaller than estimated previously, with a mass somewhere between Earth and Mars. The dim glow of Dagon in the infrared range and its inability to affect the debris ring of the Fomalhaut star indicated a low mass. Additionally, the brightness of the object decreased while its size got bigger and its orbital movement did not correspond to the predicted data. Scientists have reached an impasse. Astronomy has not yet encountered anything like this. In 2014, Dagon decided to finish the scientists off and just disappeared. Although in previous years, the object was consistently registered. Starting in 2008, the planet started increasing in size and becoming more dim until it was completely gone. All of these events went against everything the scientists knew about exoplanets. The researchers had to practically review the data again to come to a new radical conclusion that the planet Dagon never existed. The new theory proposed by the scientists suggests that the object originally interpreted as an exoplanet was a slowly dissipating dust cloud that formed as a result of a massive collision between two asteroids or planet fetuses. This discovery is even more amazing because a collision between two small celestial bodies is incredibly rare. The collision must have happened back in 2004 when the Hubble telescope was surveying the area around Fomalhaut. Coincidence number one. As time went by, the dust began to spread which explains the increase of the object's size and the lowering brightness. Coincidence number two. And the dust cloud that formed in the collision explained the eccentric orbit. Coincidence number three. And so a string of incredible coincidences confused the astronomers and created a beautiful legend about a strange and unpredictable planet Dagon that does not look like a planet or move like a planet, does not revolve around a host star on an elliptic orbit like a planet, and instead moves along a runaway trajectory that eventually takes it far away from the star. Although Fomalhaut b lost its exoplanet status, it's no reason to be discouraged. There are thousands of known and confirmed exoworlds waiting for us which are definitely going to surprise us with their terrifying yet incredible characteristics. And how about a journey to a planet that witnessed the first steps of our universe? The incredible world of Captian B is only 13 light years away from us, but its age is estimated at 11.5 billion years which is about two and a half times older than our earth and only two billion years younger than the universe. But we're not just impressed by the age of this rock hurling through space but also all the things that may have happened on the surface of the planet throughout its existence. The thing is this planet's host star, Captian, is classed as a red sub-dwarf and therefore it has an anomalous luminosity spectrum due to its age. The star radiates almost 250 times less light than our star and has a mass a quarter of the sun's mass. As such, the scientists claim that the planet is within the habitable zone in relation to its star even though it's very close, only 0.168 astronomical units which is even closer than the distance between the sun and mercury. Theoretically, the temperature on its surface allows the water to retain its liquid form. By some estimation, the temperature varies between negative 58 degrees Fahrenheit or negative 50 centigrade on the dark side and 50 degrees Fahrenheit or 10 degrees centigrade on the star-facing side. All of these parameters affect the ESI index, also known as the Earth Similarity Index. As of the release of this video, the ESI for Captian B is 0.67, similar to planets KOI-4005-01 and Kepler-62f, one of the main potential candidates for discovering extraterrestrial life forms. Of course, the age itself is not enough reason for life forms to appear, but it significantly increases the chances of it being habitable. The conception of life is a very long and complex process, and if 4.5 billion years was enough for life to develop to the point where you're watching this video right at this moment, then 11.5 billion years on Captian B might have been at least enough for microorganisms to develop. Perhaps, for many years there had been ancient life forms watching us closely.