We often view Earth as one big planet with vast oceans and land masses. It is quite true, considering how much time travelling takes even with all our technological advances.  

But when we stop to consider our or rather, our planet’s place in the universe, we are left with a humbling feeling coupled with surprise and awe at the sheer magnitude of the universe.

  There are billions upon billions of galaxies each consisting of billions upon billions of stars. And as we are discovering every day, most of these stars have planets. You can only imagine the grand number of planets there must be.  

It is no doubt then, that among these countless planets, many will be quite alien to us. In the past decade or so, we have discovered a lot of planets that shatter previously held believes and leave us with a realisation about just how little we know. Let’s take a look at 5 such planets.  

1. The Planet of Raining Glass (HD 189773b)

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This planet has a calming blue colour, much like our own planet Earth. But don’t let the beautiful blue colour fool you. It is one deadly planet, where no would be travellers would survive.   

The reason being that it rains glass constantly, that too sideways, propelled by the 7,000 kmph winds which is almost 6 times the speed of sound!  

Imagine being on a planet where you would be hit countless times with shards of glass at hypersonic speeds. You would cut like finely chopped vegetables.  

2. The Planet of Burning Ice (Gliese 436b)

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Ice and Fire are completely opposite to each other and so, we do not expect them to share space and time. But there is a planet approximately 30 light years away from home, which consists of a thick layer of ice on top of a rocky core.  

In fact, it is an exotic form of water-ice known as “Ice-x”. The surprising part here, is that the planet is very close to its sun and so temperatures exceed 400 degrees Celsius. Therefore, you would naturally think that any water would be evaporated from the surface.  

But the gravity is so strong there that it any traces of melted ice or water vapour, is pulled back towards the core and solidified. Remember, it is the speed at which the atoms in an object move that determine its state.

  3. The Puffy Planet (Wasp-17b) 

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Wasp-17b is a massive planet whose size is almost twice that of Jupiter, which is the largest planet of our solar system. The discovery of this planet challenged the theories of planetary formation.  

That is because for its size, the planet has an unusually low density leading it to be classified into a new class of planets called “Puffy Planets”.   

Another strange thing about this planet is that it has a retrograde orbit, meaning it revolves in an opposite direction to its parent star (it revolves in a clock-wise direction). This makes it the first planet to have such an orbital motion.

 4. The Lord of the Rings (J1407b)

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 Next up on the list is a planet which is very much like our own Saturn in that it consists of rings around it. As you probably know, Saturn has rings of floating pieces of ice and rock which look absolutely gorgeous when viewed from a distance.

  If the rings of Saturn look gorgeous, then this planet, catalogued as J1407b, will look even more stunning because it has 200 times larger ring system than Saturn. Scientists are baffled by how this planet was able to acquire such a large ring system.   

The planet is also much larger than Jupiter or Saturn and therefore, researchers believe that it could even be harbouring an Earth-sized planets in one of those rings.

   5. The Waterworld (GJ 1214b) 

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Ever been to the middle of the ocean where you couldn’t see anything but water wherever you looked? Well, at least you knew that you would reach land someday.

  But imagine being on a planet that is entirely made up of only water. Endless oceans of water and no land whatsoever. That is exactly how it is on GJ 1214b. The entire planet is literally a water world. And not just on the surface, the water extends till the very core of the planet which is itself made of ice.  

Now that is one scary place to be, especially considering its diameter is 2.7 times that of Earth. Who knows if this planet harbours sea life of any kind just waiting to be discovered.  