Strangest Celestial Bodies in the Universe - 1

November 10^th, 2019

By: Haris Ahmad[1]

There are many strange objects in the universe. Be it planets or galaxies or even objects that we don’t understand about. In this blog, I will uncover some of the strangest objects in the universe that most people don’t know about. Before starting, I’ll explain some terms to you for basic understanding. Astronomically speaking, only the planets in the Solar System are classified as planets; but the planets that are beyond/outside of the Solar system are called ‘Exo-planets’.

Moreover, any object in the universe, be it a star, planet, moon, or asteroid can be called a celestial body. Thus, any natural body in space is called a celestial body.

The first celestial body I will talk about is the Exo-planet 'J1407-b', which is a hot gas giant, located 400 light-years away from us. It has a diameter of 129341.77 km. The strange aspect of this planet is its huge rings.

Image Source: https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/gigantic-ring-system-around-j1407b/

This planet has rings, those are approximately 200 times bigger than Saturn’s rings. Scientists still cannot understand how this planet got rings that big. Saturn is surely jealous of this planet's ring system. However, they won't stay for long and will disappear in a few hundred thousand years. 

Furthermore, another Exo-planet named as HD 106906-b that exists in the Crux  constellation that is approximately 300 light-years from Earth, is known as the loneliest planet in a planetary system in the universe because of the fact that that it is 650 AU (Astronomical units) away from its parent star named as HIP 59960. This is a huge number because 1 AU is equal to the distance from Sun to Earth. Scientists still can't understand how this planet formed being such distant from its parent star and how does it orbit its parent star from such a distance.

The next celestial body I am going to uncover is also an Exo-planet. The name of this planet is TrES-2b.

Image source: National Geographic

It is a scorched gas giant and has a diameter of 178301.05 km. The strange thing about this planet is that it reflects less than 1% of the light that hits its atmosphere making it the darkest planet in the universe. Believe it or not, if you were to see this planet in front of you in real life, you would see a huge scorching ball of gas darker than coal. In the words of Dr. David Kipping (one of a scientist who discovered this planet) “Some have proposed that this darkness may be caused by the huge abundance of gaseous sodium and titanium oxide. But more likely there is something exotic there that we have not thought of it before.”

Moreover, another strange planet I'll explain is an Exo-planet that is located 40 light-years away from us. Some even call it a girl’s best friend because it is a huge diamond (Just Joking). The name of this planet is 55 Cancri-E.

Image Source: https://www.wired.com/2012/10/diamond-exoplanet/

It orbits its star at a distance of 22.27 million km, which is very close. Scientists say that when this planet formed, it comprised mostly of Carbon, but due to the intense pressure and heat from its parent star, the carbon got compressed into a diamond. If you were to possess all the diamond this planet has, you would be able to earn 26 nonillion dollars (That is 30 zeros). However, sadly the market for diamonds will crash and it won't be worth anything. 

Furthermore, the next strange planet is Wasp-12b. It is a scorched gas giant. It has a diameter of 248220.22 km.

Image Source: Wikipedia 

It is very close to its parent star, which is why its star is literally eating it alive. The star is slowly sucking down the mass of the planet and has also distorted it into the shape of an unnatural egg. For a comparison with Mercury, this planet orbits its star at almost 250, 000 (Rounded up for example purposes) whilst Mercury orbits the sun at 57 million km. Therefore, now you may have got an idea of how close this planet is and how hot it may be. 

The last planet I am going to talk about is Wasp-17b, which is the largest planet in the known universe. It is a strangely large planet and is very similar to Jupiter, but the difference is that it is 1.9 times larger than Jupiter making it unusually large.

Image Source: Wikipedia 

It doesn't end here though, the orbit of this planet also makes it stranger. It has a retrograde orbit, which means that it orbits its parent star in the opposite direction. Thus, the secret behind this planet remains a rare stellar mystery. The parent star of this planet may also wobble a bit due to its ginormous size and mass.

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[1] Haris Ahmad is currently studying in 9^th grade (O levels) in The City School Islamabad.

Small choices, large regrets

November 3^rd, 2019

By: Haris Ahmad[1]

Stephen Hawkins once said, “Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as a sudden global nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of”. It is our wrong choices that are the biggest threat to us and can lead to our extinction. We humans collectively have fought many wars on this planet. From the first war in Mesopotamia in 2700 BC between the Sumerians and the Elamites till World War II.  It is the basic nature of humans to dominate over others, showing themselves superior over others, who they see as inferior. As a result of these wars, we have not only caused damage to ourselves but also to this beloved planet. We have developed weapons of mass destruction and these weapons can wipe us out in very little time if used.

The biggest threat to us, which is from ourselves, is a nuclear war.  Nuclear power can be used to create energy that, in the process of making doesn’t produce any polluting gases and it doesn’t contribute to global warming.  However, once wrongly used, even the best thing in the world can become the worst. We have used nuclear power to make nuclear bombs, which are extremely hazardous and radioactive once used.

Image Source: nationalinterest.org

There are a lot of nuclear warheads in the world right now. The estimated number of total nuclear warheads is 13,890. This is a dangerously high number of such weapons and nowadays, any major escalation of a strong conflict between nuclear power possessing countries can cause a nuclear war. Recently, we have seen many conflicts of high intensity between many countries that possess this evil power. We have seen many major conflicts between Pakistan and India, who have seemed to remain enemies. Among these conflicts, the main conflict is between Iran and the U.S. The intensity of this conflict increased further by the killing of Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian major general.

All of these conflicts have brought us, humans; to the edge and the best example of these war-leading conflicts is as if we all are standing on a cliff tied to each other with a rope. Even if one major conflict rises up and someone pushes one person to fall off the cliff, we all will fall with him as we are tied to him. By this, I mean that these nuclear bombs will not only damage your enemies but will also damage you. This damage will eventually kill you. Before coming to what nuclear bombs can do to us, I'd like to highlight an example of what has it done before. On August 6, 1945. It was just a normal day in Hiroshima, Japan, when the people heard a plane flying high up in the skies. They already knew that the plane was an enemy bomber plane, as at that time, Japanese planes couldn’t fly that high. It was an American B-29 bomber who dropped a nuclear bomb on the city. That nuclear bomb killed 70,000 people and three days later, another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki killing 40,000 more people.

Another example is Chernobyl, which will become habitable again after 20,000 years. Some of you may be thinking that the bombs will only affect a small area. Well, you’re wrong. The strongest bomb today is the tsar bomb, which is 1500 times more dangerous than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs combined. Just think of what these bombs can do. Firstly, after the explosion, there won’t be a rise in temperatures. It will result in global cooling and cause a nuclear winter. Consequently, it would damage the ozone layer and later it will cause droughts, which will be decades-long. These types of conditions would kill nearly all life on Earth just in a few months.  

Here comes the responsibility, which lies in the leadership of today’s world to resolve their conflicts wisely, promote peace and invest their energies and resources in making this world a better place to live for all the living species.  

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[1] Haris Ahmad is currently studying in 9^th grade (O levels) in The City School Islamabad.