Mystery Lava Planet Kepler-78b Baffles Astronomers
Posted on October 30, 2013
The mystery lava planet Kepler 78-b is baffling astronomers. The scorching hot planet orbits its star every eight and a half hours. It has an orbit of less than one million miles from its star. This is one of the tightest known orbits. The planet could not have formed this close to its star under the current theories of planet formation. The one thing scientists know for sure is that Kepler 78-b probably won't last much longer.
David Latham of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), says in a release, "This planet is a complete mystery. We don't know how it formed or how it got to where it is today. What we do know is that it's not going to last forever."
Despite its fiery nature, Kepler-78b has some similarities to Earth. It is the first known Earth-sized planet with an Earth-like density. Kepler-78b is about 20% larger than the Earth and weighs almost twice as much. Astronomers expect Kepler-78b has an Earth-like composition of iron and rock.
CfA astronomer Dimitar Sasselov says, "It couldn't have formed in place because you can't form a planet inside a star. It couldn't have formed further out and migrated inward, because it would have migrated all the way into the star. This planet is an enigma." Sasselov also says, "Kepler-78b is going to end up in the star very soon, astronomically speaking."