Gliese- 436b

Gliese 436b (or more commonly known as GJ 436b)

This exoplanet is commonly known as the burning planet of ice. Ice is usually freezing but on this exoplanet it is almost 1000 degrees fahrenheit. Gliese 436 b was discovered in 2004 by scientists R. Paul Butler and Geoffrey Marcy. They used a method called the Radial Velocity method, which locates an extraterrestrial body by observing how its gravitational pull makes the parent star appear to shift and bend.Gliese 436 b is one of the closest known exoplanets at a distance of about 30 light years away from Earth. This exoplanet is about the size of Neptune, and is a mere 2.5 million miles away from its host star, Gliese 436. Typically, most might believe that since the exoplanet is so close to it's host star, the atmosphere would be dissolved and any water would evaporate into space. In smaller planets such as Mercury, this is accurate. However, Gliese 436 b is about the size of Neptune, so its gravitational field is larger meaning that it not only maintains an atmosphere, but it compresses the water on its surface into a solid state. This results in the water remaining in an ice-like state, while also reaching extreme temperatures from the proximity to Gliese 436, the parent star. However, the ice on the surface of Gliese 436 b is not normal ice like the ice located on earth, made into a solid state by immense cold temperatures (usually below 0 degrees celsius) the ice on Gliese 436 b is in a solid state simply due to the pressure on the planet. It is sometimes called GJ 436b. It's a Neptune- like planet with a planet mass of 22.1 earths. Its orbital period is 2.6 days and orbits its host star at 0.0291 AU.