Weird Alien Planets Astronomers Discovered Only Recently

As scientists explore the universe, they keep finding more and more weird but awesome alien planets. Would you like to visit a world where it rains glass? Or how about one where it snows sunscreen? Possibly not. But these foreign planets are really cool anyway.

Gliese 436 b

Gliese 436 b plays host to a fantastic phenomenon: Despite its temperature rising up to 800 degrees Fahrenheit, the world is still covered in ice. That’s because Gliese 436 b’s gravity is so strong that it keeps its ice crushed down into a solid form even as it should be turning to steam.

PSR J1719-1438 b

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PSR J1719-1438 b is a planet that’s made entirely out of carbon. Because of the large size of the world, it has an incredibly powerful gravitational pull, which has crushed this carbon core into a tighter and tighter ball. In other words, this planet has transformed into one enormous diamond.

A diamond planet.

CoRoT-7b

On CoRoT-7b, it snows rocks. This planet is tidally locked, meaning that the same side always faces the sun, and gets so hot that surface rock turns to lava, then evaporates.

The resulting lava clouds drift toward the constantly dark side of the planet, where they harden again to rain down as solid chunks of rock. Wear a hardhat if you want to visit this place.

Gliese 504 b

Gliese 504 b is bright pink. According to Michael McElwain, one of the astronomers who discovered the planet, it’s color is “reminiscent of a dark cherry blossom, a dull magenta.” That’s because Gliese 504 is a relatively new planet, fresh from the oven, and is still glowing with heat.