Different kinds of alien worlds
Hot Jupiter
The term ‘hot Jupiter’ is a fairly self-explanatory one. This type of exoplanet has a similar mass and radius to Jupiter, but the term ‘hot’ is in reference to its orbital position. As a hot Jupiter normally sits closer to its star than Earth does to the Sun, it’s most likely going to be much hotter.
Water world
This type of exoplanet must lie in the host star’s habitable zone, which is the region from the star where water can exist as a liquid. As this type of exoplanet would primarily have oceans of water on the surface, it would make for a enticing target of study.
Super-Earth
A super-Earth is an exoplanet that has a much greater mass than Earth,
but is less massive than Uranus, which is 15-times the mass of Earth. A Super-Earth refers purely to the mass of the exoplanet, and not its
habitable conditions.
Earth-like
This is the type of world astronomers are always desperate to find – the holy grail of exoplanets. An Earth analogue
is an exoplanet that has physical and environmental conditions similar to Earth. astronomers got inspiration from our Solar
System in the naming of exoplanets
Hot Neptune
Similar to the hot Jupiter designation, a hot Neptune is an exoplanet that has a similar mass and radius to Neptune, but sits closer to its host star than Earth does to the Sun.