Chapter 1
Worlds of extreme ingredients
Chapter 2
Surviving in extreme cosmic neighborhoods
Chapter 3
Wild weather and molten surfaces
Chapter 4
The detective work of finding weird planets
YOUR GOAL
Master of Weirdest planets in the universe
Ch 3 · Wild weather and molten surfaces
artiteacher Wild weather and molten surfaces
Did you know, up in the night? (Oh-oh!) / Planets can burn so bright! (So bright!) / WASP-121b, it's truly wild! (So wild!) / Rains molten gems, no longer mild! (Yeah!)
artiteacher This bloated gas giant is orbiting so close to its star that its atmosphere is being boiled off into a giant tail.
artiteacher Extreme daytime heat vaporizes iron, which then blows to the cooler night side and condenses into metallic rain.
BETA
artiteacher Match the melty marbles to discover the universe's weirdest planets.
Fun Fact
Iron rain: On the ultra-hot planet WASP-76b, the winds are so powerful they carry vaporized iron across the planet at 11,000 miles per hour.
Quiz
In what year did astronomers first analyze the evaporating atmospheric tail of planet Osiris?
Quiz
What is the approximate speed of the winds that carry vaporized iron on WASP-76b?
Quiz
Which space telescope detected hydrogen sulfide on WASP-39b, giving it a rotten egg smell?