Worst place in universe has 3,000mph winds, study finds

A PLANET which has raindrops made of rock, lava oceans 60 miles deep and is battered by wind four times the speed of sound, has been declared one of the most inhospitable places ever found.

Named K2-141b, the Earth- sized planet lies about 200 light years away and was detected by the Kepler Space Telescope two years ago.

In the first study of the planet’s weather systems, researchers from the University of York in Toronto say the exoplanet, which has a thin atmosphere, belongs to a subset of rocky planets that orbit very close to their star.

This proximity keeps it gravitationally locked in place with the same side always facing the star, putting twothirds of K2-141b in endless daylight.

The star-facing side of the planet sees temperatures of about 3,000C – hot enough to vaporise rock, which has led to large lava oceans. But temperatures plunge to below -200C on the other side, cold enough to freeze nitrogen.

The extreme heat leads rocks to undergo precipitation as if they were particles of water which evaporate and condense, falling back as rain containing sodium, silicon monoxide and silicon dioxide.

The mineral vapour formed by evaporated rock is swept to the frigid night side by winds of up to 3,000mph, causing the rocks to freeze and “rain” back down into a magma ocean. The resulting currents flow back to the hot side of the exoplanet, where rock evaporates again.

Co-author of the Canadian study, Prof Nicolas Cowan, of Mcgill University, Montreal, said: “All rocky planets , including Earth, started off as molten worlds but then rapidly cooled and solidified.”

“Lava planets give us a rare glimpse at this stage of planetary evolution,” he added.

The findings were published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.