SMALL AND FAST

GJ 367 b DISCOVERED: 2021 DETECTION METHOD:

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One of the most recently discovered exoplanets, announced in December 2021, is also one of the weirdest.

Found using TESS, it’s a small world, about half the mass of Earth, and it’s so close to its parent star that it completes a whole orbit in just eight hours; in other words, the planet’s ‘year’ is just a third of an Earth day. At a distance of 31 light years, GJ 367 b is close enough that astronomers can study its properties in detail. They’ve worked out that it probably has a similar composition to Mercury, and an even higher surface temperature – up to 1,500 degrees Celsius on the planet’s dayside. Needless to say, that’s far too hot for life to exist.