Coldest Lava Exoplanet Found to Hold an Atmosphere

What happened

But while it has been long known that lava worlds on with higher temperatures have atmospheres, “colder” lava worlds have been found to lack atmospheres. While “hotter” lava worlds have been confirmed to have atmospheres since the extreme temperatures melt away the surface, resulting in this becoming a gas and enveloping the planet, “colder” lava worlds are known for being bare rocks that lack atmospheres.

However, despite HD 3167 b being on the colder end of the temperature spectrum, the researchers found that it could possess an atmosphere. One such type of exoplanet that has entered the foray in recent years are “lava world” exoplanets, and especially lava exoplanets that orbit dangerously close to their stars. For the study, the researchers used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe HD 3167 b, which is located about 154 light-years from Earth, has a radius and mass of about 1.6 and 4.8 of Earth, respectively, and orbits its K-type star in about 0.96 Earth days.