#3103: Exoplanet System

XKCD comic, described below.
Transcript
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[Central diagram showing a star with various planets and objects orbiting around it, with labels and descriptions connected by dotted lines:]

[Label pointing to a large planet very close to the star:]

Giant planet orbiting so close that it's actually rolling on the star's surface

[Label pointing to a small object near the star:]

Hot Jupiter

[Label pointing to a small object:]

Mini Neptune

[Label pointing to a planet in the middle distance:]

Planet that could be habitable, if there's a form of life that hates water but loves acid and being on fire

[Label pointing to another object:]

Cold Jupiter

[Label pointing to a circled area:]

Potentially habitable void

[Label pointing to another planet:]

Hot Mars

[Label pointing to a planet:]

Planet that may actually be in the habitable zone, according to a very optimistic modeling paper by some desperate postdocs

[Label pointing to a small object:]

There's a pulsar here but it's probably fine

[Label pointing to another object:]

A waterworld paradise with beautiful oceans and warm-- wait, no, we just got new measurements, it's a hellish steam oven

[Label pointing to a small object:]

Mini Pluto

[Label pointing to another object:]

Lukewarm Jupiter

[Label pointing to a planet:]

Planet whose atmosphere is confirmed to contain atoms

[Label pointing to another object:]

Earthlike data artifact

[Label pointing to another object:]

Wet Saturn

[Label pointing to another object:]

Either a gas giant or a fist-sized rock, depending which calibration method you use

[Label pointing to another object:]

Faint dust cloud that will cause several papers to be retracted

[Label pointing to another object:]

Somehow this whole system is smaller than the orbit of Mercury?!

[Label pointing to another object:]

Planet whose surface may host conditions suitable for rocks


(Sourced from explainxkcd.com)

Title text:Sure, this exoplanet we discovered may seem hostile to life, but our calculations suggest it's actually in the accretion disc's habitable zone.


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