Astronomers find HD 3167 b retains atmosphere despite daylong orbit
Astronomers recently studied HD 3167 b, a rocky super-Earth about 154 light-years away.
What's wild? It orbits its star in just one day and still manages to hang onto an atmosphere, something that usually gets blasted away this close to a star.
This find is giving scientists fresh clues about how atmospheres can survive in extreme places and what that means for rocky planets like ours.
HD 3167 b's atmosphere moves heat
HD 3167 b is cooler than expected, likely because its atmosphere helps move heat from the sunny side to the dark side.
The James Webb Space Telescope helped make this discovery, which hints that early Earth might have looked a lot like this lava world.
Studying planets like HD 3167 b could help us piece together our own planet's history and how rocky worlds evolve.