A truly hellish planet
Imagine a planet with 60-miledeep lava seas and 3,000 mph winds—and where rocks rain from the skies. Astronomers think they might have found just such a hellish world, reports The Daily Telegraph (U.K.). The Earth-size planet, K2-141b, is some 200 lightyears away and was first spotted in 2018 by the Kepler Space Telescope. Researchers think it belongs to a cluster of exoplanets that orbit very close to their star, and that this proximity must create extreme conditions. They believe K2-141b is gravitationally locked in place, and so two-thirds of its surface endures endless
daylight—with temperatures of 5,400 degrees Fahrenheit. On the other side, which never gets any light, it’s a bracing minus 328. The researchers suspect that the scorching temperatures on the sunny side cause the planet’s rocky surface to evaporate, condense, and fall back as rain, much as water does on Earth. If these predictions prove correct, the planet’s extreme conditions may cause its composition to change over time. “All rocky planets, including Earth, started off as molten worlds but then rapidly cooled and solidified,” says co-author Nicolas Cowan, of McGill University, Montreal. “Lava planets give us a rare glimpse at this stage of planetary evolution.”