Earth may not feel like a great place to be this year , but thank your golden stars you do n’t reside on exoplanet K2 - 141b . A massive bouldery ace - Earth orbiting extremely close to its orange dwarf sun , it takes just 6.7 hours to orbit its star . This law of proximity has created some unique weather on this lava world , planets so close to their host star some regions may just be oceans of molten lava . Now , researchers have sham what the atmosphere on this humans may be like , and it ’s unlike anything we ’ve ever seen in the Solar System .
“ The study is the first to make predictions about weather condition on K2 - 141b that can be detected from hundreds of light - years away with next - multiplication telescope such as the James Webb Space Telescope , ” Giang Nguyen from York University articulate in astatement .
K2 - 141b is thought to be cover by a magma ocean that could easily give 100 kilometer ( 62 miles ) deep . The pretending reported in theMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societysuggest that this boiling sea would act likewise to our own water supply ocean .
The satellite is tidally locked , with its 24-hour interval - side invariably facing its star . With a temperature of about 2,730 ° C ( 4,940 ° F ) , the liquified sea would go through a cycle standardized to the water system cycle on Earth . rock and roll and mineral would n’t just dissolve , they ’d vaporise , thus creating a lean atmosphere .
The tenous layer would extend beyond the day - side with supersonic hint blowing at about 5,000 kilometers ( 3,100 miles ) per hour . These winds would bring the raging rocky air to the bound of the frigid nighttime - side of the planet where , thanks to temperatures of around -200 ° C ( -328 ° F ) , it cool down down and rain down back into the surface , receive its way back to the magma sea over sentence . The team intimate that the ocean and rainfall are made of Na , silicon monoxide , and atomic number 14 dioxide . It rains stone .
“ All rough planets , including Earth , started off as molten existence but then chop-chop cooled and solidified . Lava planets give us a rare coup d’oeil at this level of erratic evolution , ” say co - author Professor Nicolas Cowan from McGill University .
K2 - 141b , located202 light - yearsfrom Earth . is much denser and slightly larger than our planet , with about twice the gravitational drag at ground level that we experience . Observations of the planet ’s atmosphere might confirm these predictions and ply more insight into these infernal liquified worlds .
