Weird Exoplanets

This is the text version of the interactive 3D documentary. 한국어

Ten of the strangest exoplanets

A planet that orbits a star other than the Sun is called an exoplanet. Astronomers have found more than 6,000 of them. This map shows ten of the strangest, placed in their real directions and at their real distances. The Solar System is in the middle, and each ring you cross means ten times farther.

View the distance map in 3D · narrated

The closest planet here is about 4 light-years away and the farthest is about 1,400. That is more than 300 times farther, so on a normal scale the close planets would squash into a single dot in the middle. That’s why every tenfold step gets the same spacing.

Part 1: Close neighbors

A few years or a few decades at the speed of light. In space, that is next door.

  1. Proxima b4.3 light-years

    The closest exoplanet — and its star keeps erupting

  2. TRAPPIST-1 system41 light-years

    Seven Earth-sized planets packed inside a space smaller than Mercury’s orbit

Part 2: Inferno worlds

Planets hugging their stars. Rock melts, and iron falls as rain.

  1. 55 Cancri e41 light-years

    Rumored to be a diamond planet — it turned out to have a lava ocean

  2. WASP-76babout 630 light-years

    Molten iron rains down every night

  3. KELT-9babout 670 light-years

    A planet hotter than many stars

Part 3: Storms and darkness

Glass flying sideways, and a planet that hardly reflects any light at all.

  1. HD 189733 b64 light-years

    A blue planet where glass rain flies sideways

  2. WASP-104babout 470 light-years

    A planet that bounces back almost no light

Part 4: Strange shapes

Two suns, giant rings, a body stretched like an egg. Planets don’t have to be round, or alone.

  1. Kepler-16babout 250 light-years

    A planet with two suns

  2. J1407babout 450 light-years

    Rings about 200 times bigger than Saturn’s (unconfirmed)

  3. WASP-12babout 1,400 light-years

    Being eaten by its star and stretched like an egg

Distances and facts come from published research and NASA, as noted under each planet. The 3D close-ups are artist’s views based on that research, not photographs. Distances to faraway stars can carry some uncertainty.