NASA's James Webb spots super-hot tidally locked LHS 3844 b
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope just spotted a rocky world called LHS 3844 b, about 48.5 light-years from us.
This planet orbits its tiny red dwarf star super quickly, just 11 hours per lap, and is tidally locked, so one side always faces the heat while the other stays dark.
It likely has little or no atmosphere and surface temperatures hitting nearly 725 Celsius, it's basically space's version of Mercury or the Moon.
Webb finds volcanic iron magnesium surface
Webb's infrared camera let scientists peek at LHS 3844 b's surface and found it's likely made of volcanic rock packed with iron and magnesium: no clear signs of an atmosphere.
As Laura Kreidberg from Max Planck Institute for Astronomy put it, Webb can capture light straight from the planet's surface, which opens up new ways to study rocky worlds around red dwarfs (the most common stars out there).
Even though this place isn't livable, it helps us understand how rocky planets form and evolve around red dwarf stars.