Fun Facts
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Did you know there’s a planet where it rains glass and it smells like rotten eggs too?
It’s called HD 189733 b, it’s 64 light-years from Earth, and it’s a gas giant orbiting super close to its star. Temperatures there top 900°C, and its atmosphere is packed with silicates, the same material glass is made of. Its winds are insane: over 8,700 km/h (5,400 mph). With that kind of force, those silicate particles could get blasted sideways, creating something like a sideways rain of glass. And as if that weren’t enough, the James Webb Space Telescope detected hydrogen sulfide in its atmosphere. Yep, the compound behind that rotten egg smell. So this planet wouldn’t just shred you with glass at insane speeds, it would also smell terrible.…
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Astronomers discover a water planet doomed to be DEVOURED by Its own star
Astronomers discovered the exoplanet HD 176071 b without using the usual transit method. Instead, they tracked how the light reflected off its day side and night side changed throughout its orbit, since the planet is tidally locked and always shows the same face to its star. This ocean world orbits so close to its star that a full “year” lasts just 14 hours, and extreme tidal forces are dragging it toward a fiery fate: being swallowed by its own star. At 2.5 times Earth’s size but 8.5 times its mass, calculations suggest up to 50% of this planet could be water. It’s literally in hot water both physically and figuratively.…
