Eyeball Planets Are Exactly As Unsettling As They Sound

We will eventually require a second residence to live in space. What planet will it be if one is found that might serve as a replacement for Earth? Imagine moving through space on your spacecraft and coming across a gigantic eyeball staring at the sun-like star at the center of that solar system. It won't blink or turn toward you as you get closer since it isn't a monster; ideally, the space pals we meet in the future won't look that enormous and frightening. It's actually a planet, which is a little odd but still really cool.

We're basically looking for a second Earth, a planet that is similar to our home and where we might finally find some space friends. Hey, we're not picky. Any form of life is fine, even some bacteria-sized organisms, and this search has primarily been taking place in the habitable zone around other stars, which we call the Goldilocks zone. In our galaxy, there are hundreds of billions of stars, and about 80% of them are red dwarfs. These tiny stars are much cooler than our sun, which means that their habitable zones are smaller and closer to the star, giving us a better idea of where to look for planets. They orbit their central star, and when they pass in front of it and partially block out its light, bingo! There is a planet.

Using this technique, we have already discovered thousands of planets, the majority of which orbit red dwarf stars. Some of these planets are around the same size as Earth, and many of them may have approximately 25 times as much water as Earth.

Let's move on to these planets that scientists have discovered, but before we do, I want to show you something remarkable. You've probably heard of "super earths," which are planets that are heavier than Neptune but more massive than Earth.

Some of these planets are formed of rock, gas, or a combination of both, and some of them have thick atmospheres. While others have thin or no atmospheres at all, you may also have stumbled upon many Neptunes. By now, too, they're almost as big as Neptune and unlike normal gas giants. They have solid cores, so they can support a dense atmosphere with water and some other chemicals necessary for life.

There are also hot Jupiters. Those are pretty cool, but only if they're far away from us. You know that one annoying and unpredictable neighbor you can never get rid of or figure out what they're going to do? That would be a hot Jupiter with strong gravity, which could destabilize the orbits of smaller planets or other space bodies in the system. If we had such a neighbor, there would be more comets and asteroids hitting our surface.

Luckily, our Jupiter is a good and peaceful neighbor who minds his own business, at least for now. But let's leave all these and many other planets out there alone now. Imagine traveling around in your spaceship and coming across a giant eyeball just floating there in the darkness of space and staring at the central star of that solar system. It's not a monster.

Hopefully, space friends, the space we will make in the future won't look that big and scary, so it won't blink or turn towards you as you come closer. It's actually a planet that is a little bit bizarre but still very cool. You guessed it right! We call such eyeball planets.

Now eyeball planets are surprisingly common, plus some normal planets can potentially turn into them too. Eyeball planets form when matter and dust accumulate around a star and gradually turn into solid objects. It starts spinning, and over time, the gravity of the star pulls on the planet and slows its rotation until it becomes tidally locked. That means one hemisphere always faces the star, while the other is in darkness all the time. Now we have a good example of this phenomenon near us, too.

Our moon makes a circle around the earth once a month. It takes the same amount of time to turn a single axis, so we actually always see the same face of the moon. Who knows, maybe the other side is even prettier if you know you like craters and stuff. So one of the most interesting things about eyeball planets is their appearance.

If they had water on their surface, the side facing the star would have clear, bright blue oceans—the ones we'd want to visit if we ever got a chance to go on an interstellar vacation—and the other side would be more for adventurers who like harsh and challenging surroundings. Since it's in constant darkness, it would most likely be very cold and covered in ice.

You know, we've discovered so many planets outside of our solar system in the last 30 years. Super Earths are, of course, especially interesting. It seems that many of them are not that pleasant since they're pretty hazy and cloudy, which means it's harder to spot any life there, but some scientists still think they're promising spots when it comes to finding life beyond our solar system's eyeball. Super Earths would be a good start. I feel cold just looking at this, but the day side is my jam.

These planets are presumably covered in vast oceans on the frigid half, where during the Eternal Night Showers you'd experience Arctic temperatures. A super Earth that is located in the habitable zone of Proxima B, the nearest star to our solar system, also sounds promising when it comes to the search for life. This planet may even have the conditions and atmosphere necessary to support some forms of life.

There might still be some forms of life there despite the vast, salty ocean that covers its surface. Check out the Dead Sea on Earth; it's very salty, but some bacteria have managed to evolve to live there, and they're probably doing well having their own world and all that. I mean, it's not crowded because there are no animals there, and fish that inadvertently end up in the Dead Sea won't survive there for long, so similarly, it's possible that bacteria or some other forms of life could exist in this potentially very salty ocean on Proxima b as well. On the plus side, a climate with a lot of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide would be the only way to stop this global freeze.

It is possible that Proxima B would completely freeze over in the absence of an atmosphere containing greenhouse gases because this atmosphere would trap heat from the planet's surface and prevent it from escaping into space, as happens with Venus, the hottest planet in our solar system. On the other hand, warmer waters could act as a heat carrier from warm to cold regions, which is another possibility. Although a planet within the habitable zone sounds hopeful, its surface might still be anything from a frigid desert to an infinite ocean, according to some specialists.

Unfortunately, some studies indicate that even Earth may have gone through some snowball stages many times in history. One of those happened around 2.2 billion years ago; I wasn't around when the other one hit the planet 630 million years ago. My cool mini exoplanets out there can't turn into eyeball worlds; instead, many just become sad, dark snowballs completely covered in ice.