New planet with 8-hour year

There is a place where the surface is lava and a year is only 8 ½ hours long. It sounds like fiction, but it's actually a planet 700 light-years away from Earth, Slate magazine reports. It's the latest exoplanet that astronomers have discovered using the now-defunct Kepler space telescope, and NASA researchers are calling it "amazing."


The newfound exoplanet is called Kepler-78b. It's about the same size as Earth, and is so close to its star that it takes only 8 ½ hours to make a complete orbit. Researchers say it's about 40 times closer to its star than Mercury is to our sun. With a temperature exceeding 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, its surface is likely a giant ocean of lava. Josh Winn, a professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says that the fact Kepler-78b is even able to survive means it must be very dense.

"Whether nature actually makes planets that are dense enough to survive even closer in -- that's an open question and would be even more amazing," he said.

According to Space.com, the exoplanet was found by tracking tiny dips in the brightness of its star. As the planet passed between the star and Earth, a small shadow moved across the surface. The research team also noticed light coming from the planet itself, which is a first for a planet this small. They say it's probably a combination of starlight reflecting off lava and atmospheric gases, and radiation from its hot surface.