An object orbiting a star 1,400 light-years away is seriously confronting our notions of what's possible in the Universe.
We’ve discovered a number of “lava planets” or “magma worlds” throughout the Milky Way. These planets are in such close proximity to their stars that their surface is literally melted into a perpetual ocean of lava.
Using data from NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, an international team has discovered a new exoplanet twice the size of Earth. It orbits its star every six days and is about 10 times closer than Mercury is to the Sun.
Recent observations by NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes of ultrahot Jupiter-like planets have perplexed theorists. The spectra of these planets have suggested they have improbable compositions.
