The Grand Voyage: Strange and Wacky worlds that seem to defy logic
Posted: 23.03.2022, 20:41
Welcome to weird planets that defy logic, Stellar voyager
There are planets that seem to defy logic and don't make sense like weird orbits, strange weather, and very low albedo, but there is a logical explanation behind there weirdness, so here I will list a couple weird and logic defying planets.
TrES-2 Ab
TrES-2 Ab (nicknamed Erebus) is a dark planet with an albedo of 0.0136, the lowest known albedo of any planet!
This low albedo is caused by an absorption most likely from sodium and potassium vapor (THANKS dangerous_safety!)
after a lot and a lot of talking with danger, and lots of digging (danger was the one that found useful stuff, i just found some results but they were from a old paper, thus unreliable), so we concluded in a color for the day-side, a blue color.
This world has no obvious features on the day-side, the objects equator is most likely hotter than the poles, thus more glow at the equator on the night-side. Hmm... it appears TrES-2b has a bit of a cabs-lock problem.
DOWNLOAD A REALISTIC TrES-2 Ab
HD 80606 b
HD 80606 b up close looks like a normal Jupiter-like planet due to aerosols and haze in its atmosphere, but the thing that seems to defy logic is its highly eccentric orbit, comparable to that of Halley's comet, however there is an explanation. The eccentricity may be a result of the Kozai mechanism, this occurs when the planet's orbit is significantly inclined to that of the binary stars. The planet has dramatic atmospheric swings due to its orbit, you can see this in action here. The simulations of the planet by NASA portray it as blue on the day-side, because those simulations were from a time before ubiquitous organic haze was thought to occur on planets of that temperature rang, so imagine it with Jupiter-like coloration.
DOWNLOAD A REALISTIC HD 80606 b
HD 106906 b
You would expect the planet HD 106906 b to be cold, orbiting its double stared host at 849.9 AU, but its ~1800k (average temp) hot!
You would say "That makes absolutely no sense according to planet logic, a planet orbiting far from any star should be cold, not hot.", but due to the system's young age and jovian planets forming hot than cooling over time, the planet still hasn't yet cooled down from its formation. The planet would most likely have a rapid rotation, thus visible banding.
DOWNLOAD A REALISTIC HD 106906 b
HD 189733 Ab
The planet HD 189733 Ab is one of those planets the artistic impressions almost got correct. People say it rains glass because its more catchy, but Technically speaking, its raining MgSiO3 (the mineral enstatite, Thanks danger for telling me this!). but its not just the weather that makes this planet weird, its the planet's off-center hot spot, you would expect the planet's hot spot of a tidally locked planet to be directly within the star facing side. This off-center hot spot that is located to the west of the star facing side is caused by crazy fast winds that is strong enough to shift the hot spot to another location. The planet's day-side might look calm but all those storms are deep inside the planet, one side of the planet's night is a bit brighter than the other side due to the shifted hot spot (thanks danger for the base night texture i used to make the nightside texture!)
DOWNLOAD A REALISTIC HD 189733 Ab
Dimidium
Dimidium (also known as 51 Pegasi b) is a planet that has a color (slightly bluer) and possibly even looks similar to that of HD 189733 Ab
in terms of banding, but with a bit lest contrast. Dimidium was unofficially dubbed Bellerophon by astronomer Geoffrey Marcy before it was officially named Dimidium by the IAU, it was discovered by Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz. This was the first time we have discovered a planet orbiting a sun-like star, this discovery also forced astronomers to accept that giant planets could exist in such short and close in orbits around there host star.
(thanks danger for the base night texture i used to make the nightside texture!)
DOWNLOAD A REALISTIC Dimidium
base color for Dimidium, HD 189733 Ab, and TrES-2 Ab (had to albedo correct it myself) came from https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kg9lktTwN ... nddI4L0Ot67f-kYFIFM/edit#gid=0
There are planets that seem to defy logic and don't make sense like weird orbits, strange weather, and very low albedo, but there is a logical explanation behind there weirdness, so here I will list a couple weird and logic defying planets.
TrES-2 Ab
TrES-2 Ab (nicknamed Erebus) is a dark planet with an albedo of 0.0136, the lowest known albedo of any planet!
This low albedo is caused by an absorption most likely from sodium and potassium vapor (THANKS dangerous_safety!)
after a lot and a lot of talking with danger, and lots of digging (danger was the one that found useful stuff, i just found some results but they were from a old paper, thus unreliable), so we concluded in a color for the day-side, a blue color.
This world has no obvious features on the day-side, the objects equator is most likely hotter than the poles, thus more glow at the equator on the night-side. Hmm... it appears TrES-2b has a bit of a cabs-lock problem.
DOWNLOAD A REALISTIC TrES-2 Ab
TRES-2b.zip- (288.5 KiB) Downloaded 128 times
HD 80606 b
HD 80606 b up close looks like a normal Jupiter-like planet due to aerosols and haze in its atmosphere, but the thing that seems to defy logic is its highly eccentric orbit, comparable to that of Halley's comet, however there is an explanation. The eccentricity may be a result of the Kozai mechanism, this occurs when the planet's orbit is significantly inclined to that of the binary stars. The planet has dramatic atmospheric swings due to its orbit, you can see this in action here. The simulations of the planet by NASA portray it as blue on the day-side, because those simulations were from a time before ubiquitous organic haze was thought to occur on planets of that temperature rang, so imagine it with Jupiter-like coloration.
DOWNLOAD A REALISTIC HD 80606 b
- HD 80606 b.zip
- (889.94 KiB) Downloaded 125 times
HD 106906 b
You would expect the planet HD 106906 b to be cold, orbiting its double stared host at 849.9 AU, but its ~1800k (average temp) hot!
You would say "That makes absolutely no sense according to planet logic, a planet orbiting far from any star should be cold, not hot.", but due to the system's young age and jovian planets forming hot than cooling over time, the planet still hasn't yet cooled down from its formation. The planet would most likely have a rapid rotation, thus visible banding.
DOWNLOAD A REALISTIC HD 106906 b
- HD 106906 b.zip
- (652.22 KiB) Downloaded 130 times
HD 189733 Ab
The planet HD 189733 Ab is one of those planets the artistic impressions almost got correct. People say it rains glass because its more catchy, but Technically speaking, its raining MgSiO3 (the mineral enstatite, Thanks danger for telling me this!). but its not just the weather that makes this planet weird, its the planet's off-center hot spot, you would expect the planet's hot spot of a tidally locked planet to be directly within the star facing side. This off-center hot spot that is located to the west of the star facing side is caused by crazy fast winds that is strong enough to shift the hot spot to another location. The planet's day-side might look calm but all those storms are deep inside the planet, one side of the planet's night is a bit brighter than the other side due to the shifted hot spot (thanks danger for the base night texture i used to make the nightside texture!)
DOWNLOAD A REALISTIC HD 189733 Ab
- HD 189733 Ab.zip
- (1.23 MiB) Downloaded 132 times
Dimidium
Dimidium (also known as 51 Pegasi b) is a planet that has a color (slightly bluer) and possibly even looks similar to that of HD 189733 Ab
in terms of banding, but with a bit lest contrast. Dimidium was unofficially dubbed Bellerophon by astronomer Geoffrey Marcy before it was officially named Dimidium by the IAU, it was discovered by Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz. This was the first time we have discovered a planet orbiting a sun-like star, this discovery also forced astronomers to accept that giant planets could exist in such short and close in orbits around there host star.
(thanks danger for the base night texture i used to make the nightside texture!)
DOWNLOAD A REALISTIC Dimidium
- 51 Peg b.zip
- (1.04 MiB) Downloaded 146 times
base color for Dimidium, HD 189733 Ab, and TrES-2 Ab (had to albedo correct it myself) came from https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kg9lktTwN ... nddI4L0Ot67f-kYFIFM/edit#gid=0