Artist's impression of the GJ 367 system (IMAGE)

German Aerospace Center DLR Institute of Planetary Research

Artist's impression of the GJ 367 system

Caption

The exoplanet GJ 367b orbits its star in an extremely short time. Only 8 hours, then a year has passed on this planet. We don't know anything like this from our solar system: Mercury is the fastest planet here with an orbital period of 88 days, compared to GJ 367b it is a lame snail. GJ 367b is a rocky planet that is much denser than Earth and similar in structure to Mercury. It probably has a large iron core. This precise characterisation is based on high-precision measurements of radius and mass – not a matter of course for exoplanets.GJ 367b orbits a dwarf star that is about half the size of the Sun. The radiation on the planet is enormous because of the small distance to the star: On the side of the planet facing the star, the temperature is between 1300° and 1500° Celsius. At such temperatures, iron and rocks melt.

Credit

SPP 1992 (Patricia Klein)

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can be used with the credit "SPP 1992 (Patricia Klein)"

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