Although we don’t know much about our expanding and potentially infinite universe, what we have found so far is a mix of awe-inspiring, terrifying, and downright weird.
Here are a few space oddities that you had no idea existed.
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There’s a giant space cloud that might smell like rum.
Space cloud Sagittarius B2 is a vast cloud of dust and gas at the center of our galaxy. The cloud is largely composed of ethyl formate, which is the molecule that gives rum its unique aroma and provides raspberries with their fruity taste.
So if you were to float through Sagittarius B2, you might be surrounded by the aroma of rum and the taste of raspberries.
Scientists have found a planet that might be made of solid diamond.
In 2017, an international research team of astronomers discovered what may be a planet made of solid diamond.
Pulsars are tiny, dead neutron stars that are only around 12.4 miles (20 kilometers) in diameter and spin hundreds of times a second while emitting beams of radiation.
This planet is paired with pulsar PSR J1719-1438 and scientists think it is entirely made of carbon so dense that it must be crystalline, meaning a large part of the world would be diamond. Incredibly, the planet "orbits its star every two hours and 10 minutes, has slightly more mass than Jupiter but is 20 times as dense," according to Reuters.
There’s also a planet that’s made completely of ice – but it’s on fire.
Gliese 436b is a bit of a paradox. The faraway exoplanet is made mostly out of ice. But strangely, this ice appears to be on fire.
The surface of Gliese 436b is a searing 822 degrees Fahrenheit (439 degrees Celsius), but the planet’s icy landscape stays frozen due to the immense gravitational force exerted by the planet’s core. This force keeps the ice much denser than the ice we’re familiar with here on Earth and is thought to even compress any water vapor that might evaporate.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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