ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Chthonian planet

Hey there little one! Have you ever wondered if there are any planets outside of our solar system? Well, scientists have discovered many planets orbiting around distant stars, and one of them is called a chthonian planet.

A chthonian planet is a type of exoplanet that used to be a gas giant like Jupiter, but it ended up orbiting so close to its star that its atmosphere evaporated. This means that the planet lost most of its gas and became a rocky, hot planet.

Imagine you have a balloon filled with air just like Jupiter. Now, take the balloon and hold it very close to a flame. What will happen? The heat from the flame will make the balloon hot and eventually burst it. That's what happens to chthonian planets. They are so close to their star, that the heat is intense and they lose their atmosphere.

Chthonian planets are also known as "disintegrating planets" because they are slowly falling apart due to the intense heat and radiation from their star. They are very hot and have extreme temperatures that can reach up to 2900 degrees Celsius. That's hotter than any oven you've ever seen!

Even though chthonian planets are not habitable for life as we know it, they are interesting to scientists because they tell us about the extreme conditions in our universe. Scientists study chthonian planets to learn more about how planets form and evolve.

So there you have it, buddy! Chthonian planets are hot, rocky exoplanets that used to be gas giants, but lost their atmosphere due to being too close to their star. They are not habitable for life, but scientists find them fascinating to study.