During the entire search for planets outside the solar system, more than 3.5 thousand of them were discovered - a rather impressive figure. And for some of them, astronomers can say not only that these objects are exoplanets, but also approximately calculate the mass and size (if the corresponding parameters of the parent star are known), conduct a spectral analysis of the atmosphere and find out about its composition, as well as calculate the surface temperature … Most of the planets did not surprise scientists: these are either gas giants, similar to Jupiter or Saturn, or rocky planets, similar to Earth or Mars. But, of course, with so many planets, there will be guaranteed exceptions - and we will talk about such unusual objects.
TrES-2 b
This planet orbits a yellow dwarf similar to our Sun, at a distance of about 750 light years from us. It was discovered in 2006 by the transit method (that is, when the planet passes along the disk of its star). The planet is a gas giant - it is one and a half times the size of Jupiter. But the most interesting thing about it is that it is the blackest of all known exoplanets: its albedo (that is, the ratio of incident light to reflected light) is only 1% - this is 4 times less than that of coal. Because of this, it is very much heated by the rays of its star - the temperature of its atmosphere is 980 degrees.
55 Cancri e (Janssen)
The planet belongs to the super-earth class - it is 8 times more massive than the Earth and twice as large. It was discovered in 2004 by the Doppler method (you can read about it here), and in 2011 the MOST telescope refined its characteristics using the transit method.
Promotional video:
The main feature of this planet is that due to the high carbon content of the parent star, the planet's interior also contains many of its varieties - including huge deposits of diamonds, which is why it was quickly called the "diamond planet". It is also interesting in that it is so close to its star that it makes a revolution in just 17 hours (during this time, the Earth will make only 1/500 of its path around the Sun), besides, it is tidally connected with it: only one part of the planet, which leads to an absolutely fantastic phenomenon: the bright half of the planet is always molten, and the one in the shadow is solid.
Gliese 436 b
The planet is located only 33 light years from us, and it revolves around a red dwarf, and quite quickly - one revolution is completed in 2.5 days. The planet is comparable in size to Neptune - its radius is 4 times that of the Earth, and its mass is 22 times. It was discovered in 2004 by the Doppler method, and in 2005 its parameters were refined using the transit method.
We are all accustomed to the fact that water evaporates at 100 degrees, and at 0 it freezes. However, there is ice in the bowels of this planet … at a temperature of 300 degrees! This is due to the strong gravity - it does not allow water molecules to destroy the structure and turn from ice to water. However, the process of sublimation (the transformation of ice immediately into vapor) is slowly going on, which is why a huge tail 50 times the diameter of the parent star stretches behind the planet. So the planet is slowly losing mass, and at some point its gravity will cease to be enough to hold water in a solid state: the ice will begin to melt and almost instantly boil - it will be a fascinating sight, however, alas, we are unlikely to see it - the planet may still die long millions of years.
HD 189733 A b
The planet is a blue gas giant located 63 light-years away. It looks nothing strange: in size and mass, it is comparable to Jupiter, although it is located much closer - it rotates only at a distance of 5 million km from its star (recall that the distance from the Earth to the Sun is 150 million km).
Everyone would have forgotten about this planet if astronomers had not decided to study its atmosphere and understand why the planet is blue. Everything turned out to be quite interesting: there is a lot of silicon on the planet and in its atmosphere, and taking into account the temperature on the sunny side of almost a thousand degrees, one can observe on it … glass rains, and due to the high acceleration of free fall, the fragments gain speed up to 6500 km / h - in general, a person can hardly walk on such a planet.
WASP-12 b
This large exoplanet (radius 1.74 times that of Jupiter) is located 870 light-years away and was discovered by the transit method in 2008. Its main feature is that it is so close to its star that it makes a revolution in just 1 day, which makes it possible to exchange material between them: earlier this was found only in close binary stars, this was discovered for the first time for a planet. As a result, it is slowly absorbed by its star, and, most likely, will completely collapse in 10 million years. By the way, the planet is one of the darkest - its albedo is not more than 6.4%.
HD 188753 A b
The planet is unconfirmed - it was discovered in 2005 by the method of Doppler spectroscopy, however, due to unusual conditions in this star system, it is impossible to say for sure whether it is there.
And the unusual condition is that in this star system, located at a distance of 149 light years from the Sun, there are as many as three stars, and they are located quite close to each other - at a distance approximately equal to that between Saturn and the Sun. The planet itself revolves around the yellow dwarf HD 188753 A, and very close to it - the planet makes one revolution in just 80 hours. Taking into account that it is similar in weight to Jupiter, it is unlikely that there is life similar to us, but beautiful effects like three suns on the horizon (Tatooine nervously smokes aside) and triple shadows are enough.
GJ 1214 b
The planet belongs to the super-earth class, and is located 40 light-years from us. It is noteworthy that this is the first exoplanet of this class, the parent star of which is a red dwarf. It is 6.5 times heavier than Earth, and 2.5 times larger, while it is very close to its star - at a distance of only 2.1 million km.
The main feature of this planet is that it is 50-75% water (and 25-50% rocky materials and iron). It is assumed that the oceans on it have a depth of up to 1600 km - this despite the fact that on Earth their maximum depth does not exceed 11 km.
As you can see, other worlds are fraught with a lot of oddities - and after all, above I described only a small fraction of the discovered exoplanets. Who knows, maybe we will find a world in which there will be intelligent life.