Our universe is a beautiful place.. right? It's also extremely scary. Welcome to our first list on our wiki! Today, since the Halloween season isn't quite "over" yet, (even though as we write this, it is November 2nd, 2013), we're going to be listing the top most scariest, spookiest, and just plain downright creepy-looking extrasolar planets. Enjoy!
1. Gliese 1214 b
Gliese 1214 b might not actually look too bad at first glance. Its a Super-Earth-sized planet thats rich in water. What can go wrong?
Apparently, it can go quite wrong. Ever wondered what it would feel like to be cooked alive? If you landed on this planet, you'd have a pretty good answer! Gliese 1214 b may be rich in water, but this definitely is not the kind of water you'd want to be drinking! Not only does this planet have a bone-crushing pressures with scorching hot temperatures, it has a deadly, dense ocean at the bottom of its atmosphere. The planet is literally an egg cooker!
2. HD 80606 b
HD 80606 b is an Eccentric Jupiter planet, meaning it is a gas giant. The majority of extrasolar planets discovered are gas giants, which are sometimes the size of Jupiter, or maybe even bigger. HD 80606 b is notable for its hellish looking surface - and hellish temperatures, too! The temperature goes from 800 K (1000 °F, 500 °C) to 1500 K (2200 °F, 1200 °C) in just six hours. So where would you go to escape this brutal heat? Away from its star, towards the night-side of the planet... right?
Bad move, because the night is actually hotter! The planet has a mysterious "hot spot", which means it is actually cooler at day then it is at night. Towards sunrise, sunset, and night, temperatures exceed 1500 K (2200 °F, 1200 °C). This is hotter than molten rock!
It is theorized this "hot spot" is actually caused by the extreme winds blasting like a blowtorch around the planet away from its star, generating shocks that boost atmospheric heating.
So unless you like getting your Halloween costume all wet as you swim through poisonous gasses through brutal temperatures, you're going to want to stay away from this extrasolar planet this Halloween season.
3. Kepler-78b
Kepler-78b is one of the most earthlike planets discovered. Its a terrestrial planet, it has a similar mass to Earth, It also likely contains an iron core! And not only that, the size is nearly the same as the Earths! So, the perfect secondary planet to go trick or treating on, right?
Think again. Although Earth-sized, Kepler-78b is a hellishly hot world where temperatures blaze at 2330 K (2056 °C, 3734 °F). It also has a lot of lava. The planet has caused much surprise - and scientists don't think these planets should even exist.
Interestingly enough, there is actually no known planetary evolution that explains this phenomenon.
4. Jupiter
Yes, Jupiter. Yes, I'm aware it's not an extrasolar planet. Who's making this list? That would be me! So I'm going to throw it in here anyway. Jupiter might not seem that scary. But when you think about it, it's definitely not a place you'd want to be going too.
If you somehow went on the planet... things wouldn't be so great. First, you'll be frozen in a 165 K (-162 °F, -108 °C) temperature. Secondly, you would be bathed in deadly radiation from the poisonous gases. Then, the gravity would slowly crush every bone in your body. Then to complete the horror sandwich, your head would literally explode from the pressure. Yikes.
Even if the planet had gravity, mass, temperature, and other things similar to Earth, as the planet doesn't have a solid surface, you would fall for eternity. So if you're thinking you're going to be trick or treating on Jupiter, you may want to consider relocating.
5. 55 Cancri e
Next up is 55 Cancri e. This is a so-called "diamond planet" Diamonds are pretty good. For one, they are extremely valuable. For two, you may or may not be able to make a pickaxe out of one. But you'll have to be looking elsewhere - 55 Cancri e unfortunately is not on your side. First of all, its a carbon planet, which means the atmosphere is mostly consisted of, well, you guessed it - carbon, and it is oxygen poor. Not only that, but the planet also oozes! Yuck! Though you might argue that "ooze" is a Halloween tradition, you'll still want to be reconsidering - because this star orbits so close to its host star, the estimated surface temperature of this planet is 2922 K (4800 °F, 2648 °C). So, unless you are a risky adventurer, who strives on extremely hot temperatures, craves ooze and thinks oxygen is for wimps - you'll have to stick to mining diamonds here on Earth.
6. COROT-2 b
COROT-2 b. It's a gas giant like world that we all feel so bad for. Hopefully no life ever existed on this planet. The planet orbits oh-so-closely to its star, so close that scientists and astronomers believe that the planet literally has 5 million tons of material is being stripped from it every second. If you somehow managed to land on this planet, you may just get sucked away from the star, while being exposed to extreme radiation from both the planets resources, and the star itself. If that's not a tragic death, I don't know what is.
PSO J318.5-22 is an extrasolar planet that was very notable, in that it doesn't have any star orbiting it. That means the whole planet has eternal night! Its a gas giant which somehow maintains a scorching temperature, a temperature of 1160 K (886 °C, 1628 °F). Astronomers believe that this planet is actually a failed star. (Poor PSO J318.5-22. it's not your fault you failed. BLAME NATURE!) It's not really scary, though it was very notable.
What do you guys think? Have any more scary planets we should add to the list?