Hypothetical astronomical object

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File:Earth with two moons.jpg
Artist's concept of Earth, orbited by a hypothetical second moon
File:Eclipsing binary star animation 2.gif
31 Crateris, a possible eclipsing binary initially mistaken for a moon of Mercury
File:Carbon Planet.JPG
Artist's concept of a carbon planet. The surface is dark and reddish from hydrocarbon deposits.
File:Transiting planet HD 209458b.png
Artist's conception of HD 209458 b, a possible Chthonian planet, transiting its star

Various unknown astronomical objects have been hypothesized throughout recorded history. For example, in the 5th century BCE, the philosopher Philolaus defined a hypothetical astronomical object which he called the "Central Fire", around which he proposed other celestial bodies (including the Sun) moved.[1]

Types of hypothetical astronomical objects

Hypothetical astronomical objects have been speculated to exist both inside and outside of the Solar System, and speculation has included different kinds of stars, planets, and other astronomical objects.

Hypothetical planet types

Hypothetical types of extrasolar planets include:

Type Description
Ammonia planet Script error: No such module "Unsubst". A planet with significant amounts of ammonia. May have lakes or oceans of ammonia.
Blanet A planet that directly orbits a black hole.
Carbon planet A terrestrial planet composed primarily of carbon, rather than silicon.
Chthonian planet A hot Jupiter whose outer layers have been completely stripped off by its parent star.
Script error: No such module "anchor".Chlorine planet A planet with significant amounts of free chlorine or hydrochloric acid.[2]
Coreless planet A terrestrial planet that has no metallic core.
Desert planet A terrestrial planet with little to no water.
Extragalactic planet A planet that is located outside the Milky Way galaxy
Eyeball planet A tidally locked planet where uneven heating of the surface induces spatial features resembling a human eye.
Helium planet A gas giant composed mainly of helium instead of hydrogen.
Hycean planet Template:IPAc-en A hot, water-covered planet with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere that is possibly capable of harboring extremophilic life.[3][4][5]
Ocean planet A planet whose surface is covered entirely by deep oceans.
Superhabitable planet A terrestrial planet that is more habitable than Earth.
Tidally detached exomoon A planet that was originally a moon but has become gravitationally detached.
Toroidal planet A planet whose shape resembles a torus or doughnut.
Trojan planet A planet that orbits near the Template:L4 or Template:L5 Lagrange points of a more massive object.

References

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  1. Marco Ceccarelli, Distinguished Figures in Mechanism and Machine Science (2007), p. 124.
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