NASA’s $10B Telescope Just Spotted Artificial Light on Another Planet!

r sun, which makes it only 50% bigger than Jupiter. Proxima Centauri is also eight times as light as the sun. This star system is 4.2 lighty years away. That's how long it takes a photon of light to travel from this star to Earth. By comparison, it only takes 8 minutes for sunlight to reach our planet. If you decided to travel to Proxima Centuri, it would take you about 73,000 years to fly there in a conventional rocket. That's longer than our intelligent civilization has even existed. But it's not the star itself that interests us. It's the planet orbiting it. That's Proxima Centuri B. It's 17% bigger than Proxima Centuri Bi. Earth and about 10% heavier.

It orbits its star at a distance of 4.5 million meows. By comparison, Earth is 93 million mears, 150 million kilomearis away from the sun. But the host star Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf. It doesn't emit as much light and heat as our sun. So the planet Proxima Centauri B is right in the habitable zone of the star. It's located at such a perfect distance from its mother star that the planet neither gets too hot nor turns into a block of ice. In other words, the temperature there makes it possible for water to exist in its liquid state. This means that Proxima Centauri B could host life. But further observations of the planet make it doubtful. The host star is very unstable. Its brightness changes too frequently. In 2017, astronomers witnessed a catastrophic flash. The star increased its brightness by 1,000 times for 10 seconds. Before that, there was another weaker flash. The planet received an enormous amount of radiation. If there had been life there, that flare would have wiped it out completely. Overall, Proxima Centauri B receives about 400 times more X-rays than Earth. Complex living organisms cannot live under such conditions.

Scientists say that even if there was an atmosphere and an ocean on Proxima Centauri B, this constant radiation would simply blow them off the planet.

Proxima Centauri B is so close to its host star that it's gravitationally locked to it. This means that the planet is always turned to the star with only one side, just like the moon is turned toward Earth. That means that only one side of the planet receives this awful amount of radiation. And some experts speculate that an intelligent civilization might live on the night side of the planet. And it could be this civilization that sent us the strange signal that astronomers caught in 2019.

Scientists described it as quote a bright, long duration optical flare accompanied by a series of intense coherent radio bursts. This radio signal was observed for 30 days by one of the radio telescopes on Earth. Scientists thought the signal was artificial and could have been sent by an extraterrestrial civilization.

Presumably, the signal came from Proxima Centuri B or one of the moons that might be in that star system. But further observations failed to detect the signal. Now, the main theory claims that this radio signal is just some kind of interference from some technology on Earth. But what if it was really sent by a civilization living on the dark side of Proxima Centuri B? Well, we may soon find out for sure. People are launching a brand new telescope into space. It's the James Web Space Telescope. It's scheduled to be launched at the end of 2021. A booster rocket will take off from Earth and reach orbit. Then, it'll deliver the telescope to a specific point between our planet and the sun where their gravitational forces are roughly equal. Plus, there's no light pollution in space, unlike on Earth's surface. There are also no clouds or other weather conditions that might interfere with the telescope. The James Web Space Telescope will replace the Hubble telescope, which has been operating in space since 1990. The new telescope costs $9.8 billion, and here's why. It'll use a mirror as wide as a boxing ring. This will allow the telescope to see very far into space. so far in fact that the light from some events happening there won't have reached Earth yet. This means we will literally be able to look back in time.

The James Web Space Telescope will see the universe almost immediately after the Big Bang. We'll see how the first stars and galaxies were born and how the universe turned into what we observe today. But also, this telescope can be used to examine Proxima Centauri B.

Astronomers will be looking for artificial light there like the LED lights we have on Earth. If Proxima Centauri B really hosts life on its night side, then the locals must have learned to transfer heat and light from the day side of the planet. And they would have to use artificial light to support life on their side. The James Web Space Telescope is powerful enough to distinguish the light waves emitted by the star from those that might be created. And if we do detect some artificial light, we'll have the first ever confirmation that an intelligent civilization might exist outside our solar system. But there's always room for error in calculations and data interpretation. The only way to establish the truth once and for all is to send a space probe to Proxima Centuri. Then we can get real pictures of the planet. The main problem is distance. Although Proxima Centuri is the closest to the Earth's star system, it still takes tens of thousands of years to get there. After all, the Voyager 1 space probe needed about 44 years just to leave the solar system.

And that's just a small step compared to the actual distance to the nearest star.

So, we need other methods of travel and they have to be much faster. Some scientists want to send microp probes to Proxima Centuri B. They won't be any heavier than a sewing needle. A launch vehicle will deploy about a thousand of these probes into orbit. Then they will unfold a space sail. This is an ultralight material that will use the power of light to create thrust. When the sail is deployed, we'll focus a powerful laser beam onto it. This will accelerate the probes to about 20% of the speed of light. This will be an absolute speed record by our standards, but it'll still take about 21 years for these probes to reach their destination.

and we'll have to wait for about 4 years more just to get the first signal from them. And one of the tasks of the James Web Space Telescope is to look out for other worlds. The telescope's powerful instruments will allow it to find relatively cold planets where temperatures are close to those on Earth.

We'll be able to study in detail around two dozen nearby star systems. And we'll be able to detect not only planets themselves, but also their moons.

Scientists expect a boom in the discovery of exoplanets. From the start of the telescope in 2022, we'll constantly be detecting new worlds and learning more about those already discovered. The James Web Space Telescope will also allow us to better study our own solar system. Jupiter's moon, Europa, for example. Scientists believe there might be water there.

Although Europa looks like a block of ice, that likely makes the ice deep below the surface melt. So, there's likely to be an ocean under the ice crust. Similar conditions could exist on Enceladus, Saturn's moon. This moon is geologically active. There are geysers that burst out of the cracks on the moon's surface. The James Webb Space Telescope's infrared instruments will be able to explore Europa and Encelad in search of bio signatures. Those are the traces of life activity of living organisms or bacteria. This telescope is scheduled to operate for about 6 years, but in the future we'll launch an even bigger one. It's called Luvoir, which stands for the large UV optical infrared surveyor. Its mirror will be twice the size of that of the Louvoir James Webb Space Telescope and almost seven times the size of the Hubbles. The telescope is scheduled to be launched in 2039.

We'll get it into orbit with the help of a superheavy rocket. Then we'll have to deliver the telescope to its destination and then it'll begin its observations.

We could learn to travel faster than the speed of light by that time. Then if we find a potentially habitable planet with the help of the telescope, we can send a space probe or even a team of explorers there. In this case, a diplomatic meeting with an extraterrestrial civilization might become a reality. Right after its creation, the cosmos was shrouded in darkness. I mean, I wasn't there, but that's what most scientists are thinking. All the stars were hidden behind a thick fog of primordial gases. Then all of a sudden, something cleared up this fog and the universe started shining as it finally woke up. But how did this happen? Eight faint recently discovered galaxies might hold the answer. The Big Bang created our world around 13.8 billion years ago.

At first, it was just a super hot and chaotic boiling soup of particles. But over time, things cooled down and particles finally could stick to each other. That's how the atoms appeared.

Some helium but mostly hydrogen the very first element. And these first elements started creating thick gas clouds which were very opaque. Then the first stars started forming. They were incredibly bright emitting lots of light including ultraviolet radiation. But even though these stars were shining, much of their light couldn't travel far because of that nasty hydrogen fog. The gas clouds absorbed and scattered any little light particles around. It's like the light was trapped around the stars. The dark ages lasted for hundreds of millions of years. Then everything changed.

Recently, the James Web Space Telescope has spotted ancient dwarf galaxies from that epic. Turns out they're the ones we should be thanking for lighting up the universe. Back then, they were filled with early stars. These stars emitted tons of radiation that was so powerful that it managed to not just overcome but break apart the hydrogen atoms in the fog. It turned them into charged particles like particles that carry a little bit of electricity called ions.

Little by little, the fog got cleared away. This process of clearing out the fog is called ionization. And this beautiful time is known as the epoch of ryionization. Finally, the light was able to travel to all corners of the universe, which was a gamecher just like humans age of enlightenment. To find these little igniters, astronomers used a technique called gravitational lensing. Imagine light traveling through space like a straight beam. But just like everything in our world, even time, light obeys gravity. If it's too strong, it will literally bend the light beams. So, when the beams pass near a massive object, the object's gravity pulls them on, curling and twisting their path. That's why black holes look so creepy, as if they stretch stars in space around them like some whirlpools. But it's not that creepy. A regular glass or magnifying glass does something similar, hence the name gravitational lensing.

When the lensing object is horrifyingly massive, it bends the light into multiple images of the same object, creating a creepy and mesmerizing structure called an Einstein ring. But if it's not that big, then the bending is less dramatic, and it just slightly distorts the shape of the background object, making it look kind of stretched. Gravitational lensing also helps scientists study things like the spooky dark matter. If the light looks stretched, and it's not just because of some obvious massive objects nearby, then it might be something invisible and heavy bending it. Since these eight galaxies were too faint, no wonder they're almost as old as my unread emails. Scientists had to use these gravity tricks to observe them. The team studied light from galaxies that are over 13 billion years old. Finally, they focused on a galaxy cluster called Abel 2744, also known as Pandora's cluster.

And these findings helped them understand how even little fellas played a huge role in transforming the early universe. The James Webb telescope is an incredible tool and soon it might help us to look at even earlier times at the cosmic dawn when the universe was only several millions of years old. Another great tool called the Roman Space Telescope is going to help it. It's also possible that these galaxies weren't the only helpers in this entire saga. These early massive stars were absolutely terrifying. They just don't make them like that anymore. Some estimates suggest they were 30 to 300 times more massive than our sun and millions of times brighter. Modern stars have some heavier elements in them, but back then they used the only stuff available, hydrogen and helium, which is why they were so hot and shiny. But they also had very short lifespans lasting just a few million years. For comparison, our sun is 4.6 billion years old and is still going strong. Thankfully, at the end of their lives, they went supernovi. These colorful bursts of energy were so strong that they forged the first heavier elements in our world and spread them all across the universe, planting first seeds for the future planets. Meanwhile, the stars themselves didn't just disappear. They collapsed under their gravity, creating the first black holes. Now, the black holes are also known for producing insane amounts of radiation. So, it's possible that they might have helped speed up the clearing of the fog. Ironically, they helped the universe shine brighter while sucking up the light at the same time.

Recent discoveries show that black holes might be much, much older than we used to believe. They probably helped new stars and galaxies form. They were millions or even billions of times the mass of the sun. The James Webb telescope has already found a pair of early quazars. That's what we call the bright centers of galaxies powered by super massive black holes. It's a curious pair of quazers that are merging just 900 million years after the big bang. This might be the earliest and most distant pair of merging quazars ever found. The telescope has also been studying things that are called cosmic lighouses. In science language, they're pulsars. Pulsars are super dense remnants of massive stars. They form from stars that were once four to eight times more massive than our sun. One of the greatest things about them is how fast they spin. They're one of the fastest objects in the universe. They might do around 700 rotations in just 1 second. They got their name because they behave like lighouses, basically flickering radio waves. These beams of radiation sweep across the sky, creating a pulsel-like signal that we detect. A star basically works like this. There's nuclear fusion happening inside of its core. Atoms get fused in each other, move at crazy speeds, bump.

All meanwhile releasing an unbelievable amount of energy. That's why they emit tons of light and heat. Of course, all this pressure tries to push outward, sweating like crazy to expand a star.

The greater the fusion is, the more powerful and insane the star gets. On the other hand, there's gravity that's pulling inward, trying to compress the star and keep it a nice small, dense ball. As long as there's balance, the star keeps living. But when it gets old and spends all its nuclear fuel, it becomes too weak to generate the energy it needs and can't fight against gravity anymore. That's when it basically collapses under its own weight, going supernova. What's left behind is the stars core, but now it's crushed down to an incredibly small size, about 19.3 to 27.4 km across. It's roughly the size of a city. This dense core is known as a neutron star. The material in a neutron star is so dense that just a teaspoon of it would weigh as much as 4 billion tons, like 10,000 Empire State buildings. And all this collapse sets off a trigger, causing the neutron star to spin super fast, creating a pulsar.

It's kind of like when an ice skater spins faster when they pull their arms in. Pulsars often have a smaller star friend orbiting them. Although it's not always a friendly relationship. Not long ago, astronomers discovered a pulsar that was surrounded by lots of energetic material for some reason. They realized that all this material was the remnants of another much larger star. Turns out the pulsar had been slowly destroying its friend with its terrifying radiation and particles until it basically ate the neighbor away. It's similar to how a black widow spider consumes its mate. So systems like this were called black widow pulsars. In any case, these lighouses most likely helped the Ryionization process as well. A long time ago, they could be very energetic stars in small galaxies and could emit enough radiation to transform the early universe. The James Webb telescope's mission is to find more of these lighouses and see what role they played in the universe's evolution. Very recently, astronomers have found three potential super Earth planets orbiting a somewhat close orange dwarf star. The term super Earth is used to describe a planet beyond the solar system with a mass higher than that of Earth but below those of the ice giants of the solar system Uranus and Neptune. An international team of researchers led by Dr. Schweta Dal from the University of Exer found that the exoplanets were orbiting star HD48498 which is located around 55 lighty years away from Earth. The planets travel around their star in 738 and 151 Earth days respectively. The study describing these findings appeared in the journal MN RAS on the 24th of June 2024. The coolest thing here is that the outermost exoplanet candidate orbits in the habitable zone of its host star and the conditions there might be comfortable enough for liquid water to exist on the surface without boiling or freezing. Such habitable regions around stars are also known as the Goldilocks zone and are believed to be ideal for potentially supporting life. Another reason this discovery is so important is that the orange host star is like our sun, but since it's an orange dwarf, it produces less radiation than our yellow dwarf star. It's also the closest planetary system to host a super Earth in the habitable zone of a sunlike star, which makes this discovery super exciting.

It can help us move forward in our quest to locate habitable planets around solar type stars. Who knows, maybe this planet will be our new home one day. These potential super Earths were detected thanks to the HARPS rocky planet search program. Throughout a decade, the team taking part in this research has collected nearly 190 high precision measurements using special equipment. By analyzing the spectrum of light coming from a star, astronomers can figure out whether it's moving toward us. This is known as blue shift or away from us. That's what we call red shift. And still to make sure that their findings were correct, the team used lots of different methods and comparative analyses. Everything confirmed their conclusions. There indeed are three planetary candidates with minimum masses ranging from 5 to 11 times the mass of our home planet. The team also believes that the proximity of the star together with the outermost planet's favorable orbit can make this system a great target for future studies. Hopefully, further research will open new doors for our understanding of planetary systems and the potential of life outside our solar system.

Scientists have already discovered more than 5,000 exoplanets, which are planets outside the solar system, since the first such world was confirmed orbiting a sunlike star in 1995. To find those distant planets, astronomers use different equipment like NASA's Kepler Space Telescope launched in 2009. Its mission was to find as many Earthlike planets dwelling in the Milky Way galaxy as possible. But it's not the only instrument used for searching exoplanets. Anyway, now let's look at the most exciting and promising of these worlds. Giza 667 CC is a mere 22 light years from Earth. But even though it seems close, it's still around 206 trillion km away from us. The planet itself is around 3.8 times as massive as Earth and completes one orbit around its host star within 28 days. In other words, a year on that Earthlike planet is 13 times shorter than a year on our planet. Luckily, the star is a cool red dwarf. So, the exoplanet most likely lies in its habitable zone. But there's still a chance that this world might be regularly baked by the flares coming from its parent star, which is not cool on many different levels. Haha.

Kepler 22b is way farther away than the previous world, more than 600 lighty years away from our planet. It was the very first Kepler planet found in the habitable zone of its star. This world is larger than Earth. It's about 2.4 times our planet's size. Sadly, we still don't know whether this planet is rocky, liquid, or gaseous. The orbit of Kepler 22b is similar to Earth's. It takes the planet 290 days to orbit its G-class star, which is kind of like our sun. But this star is smaller and colder than ours. Another Kepler planet. This time it's Kepler 69C. It lies a whopping 2,700 light years away from us. This world is also almost 70% larger than Earth. Researchers know nothing about its composition, but they found out that the planet needs 242 days to complete one orbit. This makes its position in its system like that of Venus in our solar system. At the same time, this world might be more hospitable than Venus since its host star is a bit less luminous, 80% of our [Music] sun. Tollway 733b is a recently discovered world. It was found in 2023.

It's out there 245 lighty years away from Earth and needs just 4.9 Earth days to complete an orbit around its star. But the coolest thing about this planet is that it might have a massive ocean. According to scientists, the planet is likely to be completely covered with water. Does it mean there could be life on this super Earth? Time will show. GJ 1214b is located 40 lighty years away from Earth. This planet is a super Earth almost three times bigger in diameter and eight times heavier than our home. It orbits around its red dwarf star faster than you can binge watch your favorite series, finishing a complete loop every 38 hours. But it's not just the planet's size or orbit that's out of this world. It's pretty hot out there with mindmelting 450° F. But the coolest thing is that's practically drowning in water. The sizzling temperatures and crazy high pressures on GJ 1214b create some cool materials like hot ice and super fluid water.

Super fluidity is something that happens in liquid helium when it's almost as cold as it can get. On Earth, water totally missed the memo on being super fluid because it needs ridiculously low temperatures and off-the-chart pressures to pull off that trick. Still, there's not much use in superfluid water. Even if you try it, you'll just get dehydrated.

The super Earth that's closest to us was discovered in 2016 and it's called Proxima Centauri B. It's located a mere 4 light years away from Earth and has a mass remarkably similar to that of our planet. A year on Proxima Centauri B is short. It only takes the planet 11.2 days to complete a circle around its central star. Scientists discovered this world after they noticed that its parent star was slightly wobbling. They hadn't been sure what exactly had been happening there until they realized Proxima Centauri B's gravity probably produced pulls and tugs that caused these wobbles. Although the exoplanet is traveling in the habitable zone of its star Proxima Centauri, it is exposed to extreme ultraviolet radiation. All because it lies very close to its parent star. Also, none of the telescopes that are currently working in exploring exoplanets are positioned well enough to capture the light from the atmosphere of this super Earth. Most things there is still a mystery to us, even though we're talking about a planet that's close. Super Earth to 715b orbits a red dwarf, a star smaller and cooler than our sun. At the moment, such stars remain prime candidates for finding habitable planets orbiting them.

Those miniature rocky worlds have far closer orbits than those circling around stars like our sun. But since red dwarfs are small and cool, the planets don't risk anything when crowding closer, they're still safely within the stars habitable zone. Experts say that Tohawi 715b might have once had an atmosphere thicker than that of Neptune, and now the planet could be in a transition state where it's losing its atmosphere.

To confirm this suspicion, scientists need to do more research, and they might finally learn whether this planet is a watery terrestrial planet. They aren't supposed to exist.

No one expected to find them. Scientists can't explain how they formed. And still, the James Web Space Telescope has found them.

These six galaxies, as massive as our home Milky Way, are full of mature red stars. They're so far away from us that they look like tiny reddish dots, even to this extremely powerful telescope.

Astronomers have analyzed the light coming from these galaxies and estimated their age. They appeared 500 to 700 million years after the Big Bang. So far, nothing surprising.

Galaxies that young aren't exactly rare.

Scientists think that our first star clusters could have sprung up soon after the universe left the so-called dark [Music] ages. Those were the first 400 million years of its existence. At that time, only a thick fog of hydrogen atoms filled the cosmos.

What is extremely bizarre about these galaxies is their tremendous size and the age of the stars inhabiting them.

But this doesn't coincide with the existing ideas about what the universe looked like and how it evolved in its early years. Plus, it doesn't match with earlier observations made by the Hubble Space Telescope, WEB's less powerful predecessor.

[Music] So, according to scientists, what are early galaxies supposed to look like?

The answer is simple, young and small.

And indeed, previously, most early universe galaxies we found were just space babies, blue and small. They seem to have appeared out of the primordial cosmic soup just recently, and were still building their early stars and other structures.

Most young stars are actually blue. As they age, they acquire a reddish glow after burning through their star fuel and cooling down. That's why astronomers were not ready to see old red stars in those ancient galaxies web telescope was built to discover. Another thing they weren't ready to spot was galaxies more massive than a billion suns. And still, it happened.

The most massive galaxies discovered recently seem to have masses just twice or four times lower than that of the Milky Way. And the most astounding thing here is that these galaxies were already that big when the universe was a mere 3% of its current age.

But before astronomers start rewriting their theories trying to explain how such huge galaxies formed so fast after the big bang, we need to make sure that what we're looking at isn't some other space phenomenon. Even so, most alternative theories need totally new concepts as well. One of them goes like this.

Perhaps stars in the early universe emit light in some unusual exotic way. And since astronomers didn't know about it, they didn't include this possibility in their models. Or our understanding of how stars form might be inapplicable to the early universe. If any of these theories turns out to be true, it'll overturn our understanding of star formation altogether.

Now, how about we talk about the device that helped astronomers to discover those bizarre galaxies? The James Webb Space Telescope is an absolutely stunning piece of equipment, which is around 100 times more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope, and the latter has observed places that are 13.4 billion lightyear away. The James Web telescope is also on the pricey side, to put it mildly. Even though originally the cost of the telescope was estimated to be just 1 to3.5 billion, the whole development process cost around 10 billion. For comparison, it cost NASA $4.7 billion to build and launch the Hubble telescope. It was another $1.1 billion to fix it in orbit.

Even though the James Webb Space Telescope itself is three stories high and the size of a tennis court, its mirrors are the lightest large telescope mirrors of all time. During the manufacturing process, they underwent a 92% reduction in weight. When you look at them, the telescope's mirrors seem to be gold, but in reality, they're made of burillium.

This is a steel gray lightweight and brittle metal. A gold coating is applied to each mirror. That's true. But they can't be produced entirely out of gold since this precious metal tends to expand and contract even with small temperature changes. So the total amount of gold in the James Web Space Telescope is less than 2 oz. That's a golf ball-sized piece of gold. and the gold plates covering the mirror are only 1,000 atoms thick. As for the telescope's abilities, it would be able to clearly see a US penny from 24 m away and a football from 340 m away. James Web's telescope side is cooling itself down, and its temperature doesn't rise higher than -370° F. That's cool enough to make liquid nitrogen. A truly enormous five layered sun shield surrounds the telescope and reflects away as much sunlight as possible, letting the telescope stay cool. JWST is believed to be able to detect water on distant exoplanets. For a long time, astronomers have been discovering planets orbiting stars outside of the solar system by monitoring slight dips in stars light.

Such dips happen when planets pass in front of them. Plus, it's possible to read unique signatures in the light.

This can tell us about a planet's chemical composition. And the strongest and most readable signatures happen within the infrared spectrum. And guess what? James Web has state-of-the-art infrared instruments. They can help scientists spot new planets and even identify the presence of water there.

The telescope was launched near the equator because Earth spins a bit faster there and this gave the rocket some extra push. When the James Web Space Telescope runs out of fuel, it'll keep orbiting the sun indefinitely. On the other hand, even though the telescope wasn't actually designed to be serviced or upgraded, it might potentially be refueled with the help of robots. This would extend its lifespan.

Interestingly, at first astronomers were sure that finding something exciting with the help of James Webb would take time. They thought that the first discovered galaxies would be so small and dim that the telescope would only find some remote candidates at best. But it didn't go as planned. As soon as the first images were released, scientists started finding countless galaxies, bright, large, and impressively old. The competition is still on. One research group after another spots new record-breaking worlds. One astronomer even said that the scientific world was freaking out since no one had actually expected such impressive results. One of the main goals of the web telescope is to observe the light from the very first stars and galaxies in the universe. Unfortunately, the farther away an object is, the faster it's moving away from us. And the longer the light has to travel, the more it stretches towards the infrared side of the spectrum. This is called red shifting in astronomy. But thanks to its infrared equipment, James Web can reveal previously invisible worlds to us. So, thanks to this telescope, we've managed to see incredibly distant galaxies that were born around 3.8 8 billion years ago. It means that the light JWST detected took more than 13 billion years to reach Earth. Can you imagine that? But one of these galaxies stands out from the rest. It appears to be the oldest galaxy astronomers have discovered so far. It's called Glass Z13, and it dates back to a mere 300 million years after the Big Bang.

The previous oldest galaxy scientists identified was found by the Hubble Space Telescope and it dates back to 400 million years after the Big Bang. During that scarcely probed era, the very first galaxies and stars started to appear. But how exactly did this process unfold? No one knows for sure yet. It might have depended on the laws of some exotic physics, including the influence of dark matter and dark energy, or some poorly investigated communication between gas, dust, and starlight. With the help of the web telescope, scientists can now test their theories about what was happening out there after the birth of the universe. In the vast expanse of the universe, there are planets unlike any we've seen before. Planets with a treasure trove of diamonds. What mysteries do these sparkling worlds hold? What do they look like? And most importantly, just how much would it all cost? Let's find out. First of all, let's take a look at diamonds in general. We see them as rare and valuable gems, but did you know that they actually come from something as ordinary as carbon? That's right. This is the same element that's found in your pencil lead or coal. This is also the key ingredient in a diamond. But how does a plain old carbon atom turn into a dazzling diamond? Well, it all starts deep beneath the Earth's surface. At depths of around 100 m, carbon is exposed to temperatures of over 2,000° white and pressures over 825,000 lb per square in. That's like putting the weight of three elephants on a postage stamp. Under these extreme conditions, the carbon atoms bond together in a unique way. They form the crystal lattice structure that gives diamonds their distinctive shape. This process can take millions or even billions of years as the carbon slowly makes its way closer to the Earth's surface through volcanic activity and then finally the diamond it formed.

After that, it may stay hidden in the earth for thousands of years until it's brought to the surface through volcanic eruptions. From there, the rough diamond is cut and polished into the beautiful gems that we know and love. So, why are diamonds so valuable? Well, it's partly because of their rarity. Only a small fraction of the diamonds that are formed actually make it to the surface, but it's also because of their beauty and durability.

Diamonds are the hardest substance known to humans, and they have a unique ability to refract light in a way that makes them sparkle and shine. Diamonds also have a wide range of practical applications. They're used in cutting tools, grinding wheels, and even in the tips of surgical instruments. And thanks to advances in technology, scientists are finding new ways to use diamonds in fields like electronics, energy storage, and medicine. All this goes to show that sometimes the most extraordinary things can come from the most ordinary of elements. Now that we know this, let's get back to our diamond planet. Can planets like this even exist? Actually, yes, they can. In fact, we come across diamonds in space much more often than on Earth. In space, extreme pressure and temperatures are very common. That's why the universe and even our solar system is actually incredibly wealthy. Your regular asteroid can cost millions of dollars. Helium, which we can find almost everywhere in space, has a huge energy potential. It's not surprising that humanity has been discussing the possibility of space mining for some time now. As I mentioned earlier, diamonds are formed deep within the earth under conditions of extreme heat and pressure.

Scientists believe that a similar process could occur on a planet that's rich in carbon. There are a few possible ways it could happen. For example, when two planets or asteroids that contain a lot of carbon collide with each other, the collision would create a shock wave that would push the carbon atoms together so tightly that they would form a diamond. The second way it could happen is if this region of space contains a lot of carbon. If the conditions are right, then the carbon atoms could come together and form a planet-sized diamond. It's like if you have a lot of Lego blocks and you put them together to create a big Lego structure. In other words, if two carbonri objects collide with each other, the carbon atoms can be squeezed together so tightly that they form a diamond. And now, surprise, surprise, these planets actually do exist. The planet we're talking about is called 55 Canankri E. It's one of the five planets in a small system in the constellation of Cancer. Its star is actually so bright that you can see it with the naked eye. It's located 40 lighty years away from us, which may be trillions of miles, but on a space scale, it's pretty close. 55 Canry E was first discovered in 2004. However, we didn't learn until 2012 that it was the first known diamond planet. All thanks to the research of scientists from Yale University. This planet is the super Earth. This is a class of planets that are larger than our Earth, but too small to be considered giant. It's about twice as big as our Earth and about eight times heavier. The planet rotates around its star really fast. It completes a full turn in just 18 hours. This means that one year on the planet is less than a day on Earth. It's also tidily locked to the star. In other words, one side of this planet is always turned towards the star and therefore is incredibly hot while the other is in eternal darkness just like with our moon. Also, 55 Canankri E is about 25 times closer to its star than Mercury is to our sun.

As a result, the temperatures there are just enormous. On the day side, they're just above 4,000 in. And on the night side, which by the way is considered the cold one, over 2,500 degree at doesn't really sound like a good place to chill out, does it? Well, it may not be good for us, but for diamonds, it's just perfect.

After studying the planet, scientists concluded that it's a rocky world full of carbon. But this carbon isn't contained there in the form of gas.

Instead, it's in the form of graphite.

Yes, the same one found in your pencils.

And of course, diamonds. According to some estimates, diamonds make up at least a third of 55 can a cost about 27 non-illion dollars. There are 30 zeros in this number. Can you imagine that?

But the most interesting question is what would such a planet look like? First of all, the thermal evolution and tectonic processes there are completely different compared to our Earth. In other words, the planet should be full of strange volcanoes and some bizarre volcanic activity, weird mountains and stuff like that. In addition, the planet is probably covered with large clouds of dust and the atmosphere on it is very dense. And the weather is definitely crazy. The researchers are planning to learn about the composition of 55 Canankree E's atmosphere in the future, but right now it's already pretty clear that this planet can't be called habitable. Well, finding life there is theoretically possible, but it's very unlikely. Life on a diamond planet could potentially exist deep underground, for example. On Earth, we've already observed bacteria and microbes that can survive under incredibly extreme conditions. These guys are very resilient. They're capable of turning chemicals into energy and surviving basically anywhere. So, on a diamond planet, life could potentially exist in this form. And who knows, extraterrestrial life may also take forms that are completely unknown to us.

Wouldn't it be cool to discover some crystal creatures capable of surviving in the most extreme heat? That would be mind-blowing.

And guess what? It's not just 55 Canree E that's full of diamonds. Other potential diamond hotspots include Pluto's largest moon Cher and a Jupiter style exoplanet rich in carbon found 1,200 lightyear from Earth called 12b.

Scientists even think that diamonds rain on Saturn and Jupiter regularly. All this was discovered by the researchers from the Arizona State University. They claimed that diamond planets are not that rare at all. According to a 2020 scientific report, they form around certain types of stars that have high carbon to oxygen ratios. They went above and beyond to study these space gems. They subjected carbide silicon to insanely extreme pressures above 50 gpa and temperatures as high as 2500° Kelvin to see what would happen. And they discovered that under these wild conditions, carbide silicon transforms into diamond and silica. So if you're looking for some diamond bling, you might not have to go too far. You could go intergalactic and explore some of these diamond planets.

These exoplanets are unlike anything in our solar system. And who knows what other awesome discoveries are out there waiting for us to find them. As scientists continue to explore the vast expanse of the universe, they've made some incredible discoveries that have left them with more questions than answers. From a scorching super Earth to a football-shaped world, the exoplanet discoveries of 2022 are truly out of this world. So hold on tight. The future of exoplanet discoveries is looking brighter than ever. Number one, new type of exoplanets. Red dwarfs make up over 70% of all stars in space. So, in September of 2022, scientists decided to take a closer look at the small worlds orbiting them. What they found was amazing. New type of exoplanets that were made of half rock and half water, either in liquid or ice form. The researchers suggested that these planets likely arose from icy material and were born far away from their stars past the ice line where surface temperatures are freezing. But they later migrated closer in to where the astronomers detected them. This discovery could have huge implications in the search for life in the cosmos. Though these planets are loaded with water, they might not be covered in oceans. Who knows, maybe one of them will be the next Earth 2.0.

Number two, Jupiter sized world. Imagine a planet so massive and mysterious. It's like a hidden Jupiter in our galaxy.

Well, we just discovered one of those orbiting a star just 379 light years away. Just haha. We've named it TOI 21 A2B and it's got everyone talking. Why? Well, for starters, this planet takes a whopping 261 days to orbit its star, which is much longer than most distant gas giants we've come across so far. But that's not all. The temperature on this world is surprisingly mild, averaging at a balmy 170°. For comparison, the temperature on Jupiter and Saturn is around 280° hours.

It's like a bridge between the giant exoplanets we found and our Jupiter. But the question remains, how did this planet get to be so different?

Scientists are still trying to figure that out. Let's hope that we'll get some answers soon. Number three, the Hulk planet. This world is a place where the surface is covered in molten magma and the year lasts just half a day. Welcome to Toi 1075b, an exoplanet that's been dubbed the planet Hulk by scientists.

Located 200 lighty years away, this super Earth is one of the most massive ever discovered. Its proximity to its parent star causes its surface to reach scorching temperatures of 1,22. It's so hot that any form of water would evaporate instantly and the air would be filled with vaporized rock. But it's not just the heat that's impressive. It's also its size. TOI 1075b is nearly 10 times the mass of Earth, making it one of the most massive super Earths ever discovered. But the mystery doesn't stop there. The planet's orbit takes just 14.5 hours, making it one of the shortest orbital periods ever recorded for a planet of its size. What an exciting addition to our catalog. Number four, three doomed planets.

Astronomers made a shocking discovery of three planets that are circling in a dangerous dance next to the slowly fading stars. Just a decade ago, scientists never even imagined such planets could exist. These giant gas planets, similar in size to Jupiter, orbit way too close to their slowly fading stars. They're basically walking on the edge. Take one of them for example, dubbed TOI 2337b. Its orbit will likely send it hurtling straight into the fiery arms of its host star in less than a million years. Well, I won't be around then. As these stars enter their final days, they're pulling in nearby planets like a black hole, altering their orbits and potentially causing catastrophic collisions. And as these planets get closer to their stars, their atmospheres heat up and swell, leading to some mind-boggling differences in density.

But despite the doom and gloom, studying these worlds could give us valuable insights into the evolution of our own solar system. Number five, planet with a barerium's atmosphere. These are two hot blazing planets, each with an atmosphere made of the heaviest element ever found in an exoplanet, barerium. These planets, known as WASP 76b and WASP 121b, are ultra hot gas giants called hot Jupiters that orbit incredibly close to their stars. These planets are basically like giant balls of fire with one side facing the star, cooking at temperatures hot enough to vaporize iron and other metals. But as the hot iron vapor is blown to the planet's cooler night side, it turns into liquid and falls as iron rain.

And these planets held a special surprise for us. Barerium is a heavy metal, about 2.5 times as heavy as iron.

And yet, scientists were able to detect it in the upper layers of these planets atmospheres. This is truly a mystery and a puzzle that we're still trying to solve. Imagine landing on a planet like this and looking at this rain of iron and the heavy barium in its skies. That would be awesomely horrifying. Number six, the football planet. Get ready to have your mind blown space enthusiasts because we've just discovered the ultimate football-shaped planet, and it's unlike anything we've ever seen before. Meet WASP 103b, the ultra hot exoplanet that's more than 1,000 lighty years away from Earth. This gas giant is so close to its parent star that its shape is being stretched by the intense gravitational forces. But this isn't just a fun shape shifter. It's also a valuable scientific discovery. By studying the planet's passes across its star, we were able to measure its deformation for the first time ever. It's like taking a snapshot of a planet in motion, and it's giving us insights into the extreme conditions that these planets can endure. This is truly a great discovery. Number seven, a zodiacal light. Are you ready for a cosmic ghost story? Scientists and high school students in China have uncovered a spooky phenomenon on three distant exoplanets. It's called zodiacal light, a glow that similar to the one seen here on Earth during sunset. But this isn't just some eerie light show. It could hold clues about the makeup of these potentially habitable worlds. Imagine watching the sunset from a dark spot on Earth and instead of darkness, a triangle of light appears. That's zodiacal light. It's caused by sunlight reflecting off dust particles that fill the solar system, the remains of asteroids and comets. The team of researchers analyzed 47 potentially habitable exoplanets named Kepler 69C, Kepler 12129b, and Kepler 395C. All super Earths had signs of this light.

This discovery is more than just a spooky phenomenon. It could reveal information about the presence of asteroids and comets in these exoplanet systems, which could be difficult to detect otherwise. So, that's pretty neat. Number eight, a planet with silicut clouds. Introducing VHS 1256b. Not a home video recording system, but a strange and exotic world shrouded in mystery and wonder. A place where the clouds are made of sand and the sky is forever red.

This isn't the stuff of science fiction, but a real life discovery made by the brilliant minds at NASA. This is a brown dwarf exoplanet that's making waves in the astronomical community. It's way too massive for a planet nearly 20 times the size of Jupiter. But it's not quite a star. It's something in between. A cosmic enigma that defies definition. But what's really crazy about VHS 1256b is its atmosphere.

Scientists have discovered that this strange world is cloaked in thick clouds of silicut grains similar to sand. It's the first time this kind of cloud has ever been detected on an exoplanet. And it's a discovery that's sure to change the way we think about the universe and the possibilities of life beyond our own world. And there you have it, folks. The year 2022 was filled with incredible discoveries and groundbreaking findings in the world of exoplanets. But this is just the beginning. As scientists and researchers continue to explore the vast expanse of space, we can only imagine what other wonders await us. So, let's keep looking up. Who knows what secrets the stars hold for us next?

If light is the language of intelligence, then whose signal have we glimpsed across the cosmic abyss? Are we witnessing the first whisper of an unknown civilization, or is the universe merely playing tricks on our curiosity? let me know on a comment and thanks for reading.