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Space

Planet caught in a gravitational 'tidal storm' is so hot that it glows

A strange world is being stretched out of shape by its neighbouring planets, heating it up so intensely that it probably has a molten surface

By Leah Crane

2 April 2024

Artist's impression of a super-Earth

One rocky planet might be so hot it glows

ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser

A distant world is being stretched by the powerful gravity of its neighbouring planets and star to extremes never seen before in a rocky planet. The stretching is so intense that this strange world’s surface is probably entirely molten and so hot that it glows.

Stephen Kane at the University of California, Riverside, and his colleagues spotted this unusual planet in a system already known to have one larger world, a giant planet circling the star once every 55 days…

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