Astronomers have found a super-hot exoplanet, one of its hemispheres is red-hot lava
Astronomers have discovered an unusual exoplanet that is similar in size to the Earth. They believe that one of its hemispheres is immersed in eternal darkness, while the other is hot lava, writes Ars Technica.
Co-authors of the study were Benjamin Capistran (University of Florida) and Melinda Suarez-Furtado (University of Wisconsin-Madison). They presented the results of their work at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans.
The planet discovered by scientists was named HD 63433 d. Its age is “only” 400 million years – for comparison, the age of the Earth is estimated at about 4.5 billion years.
The planet’s diameter is about 1.1 times the diameter of the Earth. It orbits a star, and the temperature there potentially reaches 1257 °C. Therefore, it is assumed that its illuminated side is lava.
Earlier, it was reported that planets containing liquid water, a key ingredient for life, may be 100 times more common than previously thought. This is evidenced by the results of a study presented at the Goldschmidt Conference in Lyon, France.