Astronomers discover most inhospitable planet ever
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Astronomers have discovered the most inhospitable planet ever that rains rocks, with 60 mile deep lava seas and winds of more than 3,000 mph.
The Earth size planet has winds four times the speed of sound with temperatures of about 3,000 degrees Centigrade on one side – hot enough to vaporise rock.
But they plunge to below minus 200C on the other – cold enough to freeze nitrogen.
The bizarre exoplanet also harbours a vast ocean of magma – more than 60 miles deep.
Named K2-141b, it lies around 200 light years away – and is one of the “most extreme” ever found.
Studying it is shedding fresh light on the evolution of Earth.
Lead author Giang Nguyen, a PhD student at York University, Toronto, said: “The study is the first to make predictions about weather conditions on K2-141b.”
The fiery, hot world has a surface, ocean and atmosphere all made up of the same ingredients – rocks. There are seas of molten lava.
The planet described in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society was detected two years ago by the Kepler Space Telescope.
Computer simulations have now predicted the weather.
The inhospitable conditions forecasted may permanently change the surface and atmosphere over time.
