Astronomers discover exoplanet where each year only lasts 8.5 hours

According to a note released by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a team of astronomers at this institute has discovered a new exoplanet that takes only 8.5 hours to complete an orbit around its star, meaning that there is a celebration of the planet. new year every day!

Just kidding aside, the exoplanet - named Kepler 78b - has Earth-like dimensions and one of the shortest orbital periods ever detected. The star is 700 light years away from us, but extremely close to its star (about 40 times closer than Mercury is to our Sun), with surface temperatures estimated at over 2, 700 ° C.

Lava ocean

With these conditions in mind, the researchers believe that the surface of Kepler 78b is covered by a true ocean of lava, so there is virtually no chance of finding any kind of life there.

However, according to astronomers, more interesting than the discovery of the Kepler 78b itself was the fact that the researchers could detect the light emitted by the star, as this was the first time anyone could do this with a exoplanet as tiny as that.

According to the note, the exoplanet was discovered through analysis of data collected by NASA's Kepler space telescope, and astronomers were specifically looking for stars with short orbital periods. As they explained, these worlds are theoretically in the habitable zones of their solar systems, meaning that it is possible that water in liquid form can be found. This time, it was not yet the case.