14 DAY TRIAL // A team of experts handling the NASA Kepler Telescope recently announced the discovery of a new extrasolar planet, one that is so hot it could melt iron left unattended on its surface. The object, just 1.6 times larger than Earth, is located just 352 light-years away from the Sun.
It's not often that astronomers find an Earth analog, a planet whose radius is very close to that of our own. Though they rejoiced in the new finding, the enthusiasm immediately subsided when it was learned that the planet took just 2.8 days to orbit its parent star, HD 179070.
The exoplanet, called Kepler-21b is located just 6 million kilometers (3.72 million miles) away from its star, whereas Mercury – the closest planet in our solar system to the Sun – lies about 57 million kilometers (35.41 million miles) away from its parent star.
As such, average temperature levels on the surface of Kepler-21b could well exceed 1,900 degrees Kelvin (2,960°Fahrenheit, 1,626.85°degree Celsius), NOAO reports. More details of the planet will appear in an upcoming issue of the Astrophysical Journal.