A team of researchers has discovered a strange planet that may be melting from within. The exoplanet, located in a faraway star system, is named TOI-6713.01, according to a report in Live Science. It has many active volcanoes that appear to be erupting, giving it a fiery red glow when seen from space, the outlet further said. No planet like this has ever been observed before, researchers said, adding that follow-up observations will be required to confirm the bizarre world's existence.
The planet's discovery has been documented in a study published in The Astronomical Journal. It is orbiting a dwarf star around 66 light years away from Earth.
The planet is slightly bigger than the Earth and completes its orbit in 2.2 days.
NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) hinted that that planet's surface is covered with molten lava from hundreds of volcanoes spewing on its surface. The temperature there exceeds 4,200 degrees Fahrenheit (2,300 degrees Celsius).
"This means the planet literally glows at optical wavelengths. It was one of those discovery moments that you think, 'wow, it's amazing this can actually exist," Stephen Kane, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Riverside who led the discovery, told Universe Today.
The researcher described the planet as "Io on steroids". Io, Jupiter's third largest moon, is the most volcanic body in our solar system, with every inch of its surface covered in lava plains.
Space.com said that the orbit of the newly discovered planet highly elliptical like Mercury. But unlike its solar system cousin, TOI-6713.01 is almost within touching distance of its sun. Two other planets exert gravitational pull on TOI-6713.01 causing it to experience gravitational tides, which stretch and twist the planet's molten, malleable interior as the planet regularly orbits closer to, and then farther from, its star.
