<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GM_20-07_SPACE-STATION_COMP.jpg\"\/)
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STARRY EYED<\/p>\n
From ‘red lightning sprite’ to rare comet – 7 dazzling snaps by Nasa astronauts<\/p>\n
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However, more recent research suggests that the world \u2013 which scientists say is a rocky planet \u2013 might actually be packed with sapphire instead.<\/p>\n
But despite its potentially glittering appearance, it\u2019s not a place that you\u2019d want to visit.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because the planet is totally inhospitable \u2013 totally unfit for human life.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis super hot world is covered in a global ocean of lava,\u201d Nasa warned.<\/p>\n
Though the space agency did add that 55 Cancri e \u201chas sparkling skies\u201d, giving visitors a delightful final view before they perished.<\/p>\n
The planet was first discovered back in 2004, and has a mass of about 7.99 Earths, according to Nasa.<\/p>\n
It takes just over half a day to orbit its star \u2013 that\u2019s compared to our own planet, which lumbers around the Sun over 365 days.<\/p>\n
The toasty 2,400C temperature is due to the fact that 55 Cancri e is very close to its star.<\/p>\n
In fact, the average distance from its star is just 1.4 million miles. For contrast, Earth sits about 93 million miles from the Sun.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe star, 55 Cancri, is a K-type star nearly the same size and mass as the Sun, but slightly cooler and dimmer,\u201d Nasa explained.<\/p>\n
The planet is believed to have a vast lava ocean \u2013 and an atmosphere that may be fed by magma \u2018outgassing\u2019Credit: Nasa Eyes On Exoplanets<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is just bright enough to see with the naked eye in a very dark sky. The star and planet are so close to each other that the star would appear 70 times wider in the planet\u2019s sky than the Sun appears in our sky.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn addition, because the planet is likely to be tidally locked, from any given point, the star would appear fixed in the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n
The temperature varies significantly on the 55 Cancri e, which may be due to volcanic activity.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, the planet is believed to be tidally locked. That means the planet has a \u201cdayside\u201d that is permanently facing its star.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\tEXOPLANETS \u2013 EXPLAINED!\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/nasa-exoplanet.jpg\")
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tHere’s what you need to know…\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
An exoplanet is a planet that is located outside of our Solar System and one that is orbiting its own star, as Earth orbits the Sun
\nThey are very hard to see with telescopes because they are often hidden by the brightness of their star
\nNasa sent the Kepler space telescope into orbit with the purpose of finding Earth-sized exoplanets that might support life
\nMore than 6,000 exoplanets have been discovered so far and more missions to find even more exoplanets are planned
\nA good way to spot an exoplanet is to look for \u201cwobbly\u201d stars because a disruption to starlight can indicate that a planet is orbiting it and blocking its light intermittently
\nExpoplanets are very common in the universe and the more we find that look like Earth, the closer we get to knowing whether Earth is the only life-bearing planet<\/p>\n
Picture Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/p>\n
Nasa says that the planet has \u2018sparkling skies\u2019Credit: Nasa Artist’s Concept<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s believed to have an atmosphere that\u2019s rich in either carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide.<\/p>\n
Scientists writing in the journal Nature believe that the vast magma ocean on the planet may be providing gas that sustains this atmosphere.<\/p>\n
The planet\u2019s first atmosphere was believed to have been destroyed by radiation from the star.<\/p>\n
And the current atmosphere is believed to have \u201cgrown\u201d from gases sourced from inside the rocky interior of the planet.<\/p>\n
The planet orbits its star extremely closely, resulting in extremely high temperaturesCredit: Nasa Eyes On Exoplanets<\/p>\n
Nasa also said that there may be \u201cshort-lived clouds made of tiny droplets of lava\u201d on the planet.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s about 41 lightyears away from Earth, so there\u2019s no chance of you visiting it any time soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A FIERY hell-world that would instantly roast visitors alive has a vast lava ocean \u2013 and may be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,129,9438,131,128,285,20031,153861],"class_list":{"0":"post-317331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-earth","11":"tag-longtail","12":"tag-nasa","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-space","15":"tag-space-and-astronomy","16":"tag-weird-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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