Scientists have discovered a 'super Earth' named TOI-561 b, a planet with seas of molten lava and one side permanently locked in daylight. The planet, located 560 light-years away in the Milky Way, has surface temperatures exceeding 1,700°C and orbits its star in under 11 hours.
Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope suggest the planet retains a thick atmosphere containing water, oxygen, and carbon dioxide, challenging previous theories that such hot planets cannot hold onto atmospheres. The atmosphere is believed to be sustained by a balance between the magma ocean and the gas envelope.
TOI-561 b is about 10 billion years old, twice the age of our Sun, indicating that rocky planets formed early in the universe's history. The star it orbits is also ancient, and the planet's ultra-short orbit places it extremely close to its star, at about 1/40th the distance of Mercury from the Sun.
Postdoctoral Fellow Nicole Wallack from Carnegie Science noted that the planet's atmosphere defies conventional wisdom about ultra-short-period planets. Study co-author Tim Lichtenberg described it as a 'wet lava ball' where gases cycle between the magma ocean and the atmosphere.
Discovered by NASA's TESS in early 2021, the planet was further studied using the James Webb Space Telescope, a $10 billion joint project between NASA, ESA, and CSA, launched in 2021 and now orbiting the Sun about one million miles from Earth.
