A ROCKY alien world is so toasty that Nasa says it “could be another circle of hell”.
The scorching 6,800C planet is called Kepler-70b (or KOI-55b), and it’s just over 4,000 light-years from Earth.
The planet is believed to have once been a gas giant – but evaporation has dramatically reduced it to a fiery terrestrial world[/caption]
It’s described as a “terrestrial” planet – a rocky world with a similar structure to Earth.
The planet is orbiting the star Kepler-70 in the constellation Cygnus.
This star is too faint to be seen with the naked eye – but can be spied with a telescope.
Nasa says it’s “one of the hottest planets discovered”, and warned that “the planet itself is evaporating, soon to be another victim”.
Scientists think that the planet started out as a gas giant that spiraled toward Kepler-70.
The star became a red giant, which evaporated most of it – except for a solid core.
Now Nasa says that the planet is a “a rocky world hotter than the Sun”.
“Kepler-70b (a.k.a. KOI-55 b) could well be another circle of hell,” Nasa explained.
“With an average temperature of about 12,000 degrees F (6,800 C).
“It used to be Jupiter-sized until it spent time inside its now-dead star.
“A trip that destroys most planets, but left this one a Freddy Krueger-like burned world smaller than Earth.”
The planet was first detected in 2011 – and has since been flagged by Nasa as a “horror” world.
It was spotted due to the reflection of starlight caused by the planet – alongside another world named Kepler-70c.
The alien world would be toastier than the hottest confirmed exoplanet KELT-9b, which has a measured temperature of 4,326C.
What is an exoplanet?
Here’s what you need to know…
- An exoplanet is a planet that is located outside of our Solar System and one that is orbiting its own star, as Earth orbits the Sun
- They are very hard to see with telescopes because they are often hidden by the brightness of their star
- Nasa sent the Kepler space telescope into orbit with the purpose of finding Earth-sized exoplanets that might support life
- More than 5,500 exoplanets have been discovered so far and more missions to find even more exoplanets are planned
- A good way to spot an exoplanet is to look for “wobbly” stars because a disruption to starlight can indicate that a planet is orbiting it and blocking its light intermittently
- Expoplanets are very common in the universe and the more we find that look like Earth, the closer we get to knowing whether Earth is the only life-bearing planet
Scientists think that the host star Kepler-70 stopped being a red giant around 18.4 million years ago.
Eventually it will run out of helium and turn into a white dwarf.
This is an extremely dense star that isn’t very luminous – and is typically the last stage of a star that isn’t massive enough to become a neutron star or black hole.
Sadly it’s unlikely that we’ll ever be able to visit Kepler-70b.
At a distance of 4,015 light-years from Earth, it would take an extraordinary amount of time to reach.
Later Apollo spaceships reached speeds of around 24,500mph.
At that speed, it would take around 965 million years to reach the planet.
