Meet K2-229b, an Earth-sized exoplanet located 339 light years away, which has just been discovered by an international team of researchers.
The new planet orbits its star every 14 hours, however, because of its close location to the medium-sized active K dwarf in the Virgo Constellation, K2-229b sees daytime temperatures soar above 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit, making it an uninhabitable zone, according to the International Business Times.
The planet may not offer any signs of life, but it does bear a resemblance to Mercury. Scientists from England’s University of Warwick and France’s Aix-Marseille University are hoping this will help them gain a better understanding of our solar system’s hottest planet, Newsweek said.
“Mercury stands out from the other solar system terrestrial planets, showing a very high fraction of iron and implying it formed in a different way,” David Armstrong, of the astronomy and astrophysics group at the University of Warwick, said in a statement.
“We were surprised to see an exoplanet with the same high density, showing that Mercury-like planets are perhaps not as rare as we thought.”
Astronomers first noticed K2-229b while studying the light patterns emitted from its host star, which suggested the presence of an orbiting body, IBT said.
Further investigations led to the discovery of the planet, which is two-and-a-half times heavier than Earth.
“Interestingly, K2-229b is also the innermost planet in a system of at least three planets, though all three orbit much closer to their star than Mercury,” Armstrong noted. “More discoveries like this will help us shed light on the formation of these unusual planets, as well as Mercury itself.”
At the moment scientists can only theorize about the new planet’s origins.
One hypothesis is that its atmosphere might have been eroded by intense stellar wind and flares, but another idea is that an impact between two giant astronomical bodies led to the formation of K2-229b.
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