HD 63433 d: An Earth-Sized Exoplanet with 'Lava Hemisphere'
All images: NASA, Representative images.
All images: NASA, Representative images.
Scientists have found a planet just 73 light years away from Earth. The planet, HD 63433 d, is the smallest and the closest discovered Earth-sized planet which is about 400 million years old.
HD 63433 d whips around its star on an extremely tight orbit, once every 4.2 days. The exoplanet is extremely hot- with dayside reaching temperatures of a whopping 1,257 degrees Celsius. Scientists behind this discovery think that the planet's dayside could be a "lava hemisphere."
HD 63433 d is 1.1 times the radius of Earth. The exoplanet's mass is not yet known, but its physical size implies a terrestrial composition, a rocky world like Earth or Mars.
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