The Burning Ice Planet: The Paradoxical World of Gliese 436b

Many new planets are discovered every year, but there is one astronomical marvel I’d like to share today. On the surface, Gliese 436b appears to be a basic Neptune-sized planet, only 30 light-years away from Earth. However, with a small rocky core and a mass of 21 Earths, this planet exerts a strong gravitational force that increases with depth. This causes the water on Gliese 436b to transform into ice, just as carbon turns to diamond when exposed to massive amounts of temperature and pressure. But with temperatures of 439 °C, this ice is theorized to be quite literally on fire! Known as Ice VII, scientists have replicated the cubic, crystalline form of ice in laboratories.

Finally, the planet’s atmosphere is constantly expanding, escaping the planet’s gravitational attraction. This creates a 14 million km tail of atmosphere that makes the planet look like a comet.