Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The planet’s surface is “thought to be covered in oceans of lava”, NASA says, as surface temperatures on the distant world are “far above the melting point of typical rock-forming minerals”. NASA scientists are expected to gain new insight into a distant world whose landscape may well resemble the biblical hell.
The planet in question is a called 55 Cancri e is located about 50 light-years away from Earth, and orbits a Sun-like star at a distance of less than 1.5 million miles, which is one twenty-fifth of the distance between Mercury and the Sun.
With the surface temperature on the planet apparently “far above the melting point of typical rock-forming minerals”, the day side of 55 Cancri e “is thought to be covered in oceans of lava”, NASA reported last week.
NASA also pointed to the possibility that the planet may have a day-night cycle, instead of being tidally locked, and that it could thus possess a thin atmosphere which forms as the surface heats up, melts, and vaporises during the day.
55 Cancri e was named as one of the first investigation targets for NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, which is expected to become fully operational this month.
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