LIVE SCIENCE - A newly discovered planet in a faraway star system appears to be erupting with so many volcanoes, it glows a fiery red when seen from space. No planet like this has ever been observed before, researchers say, and follow-up observations will be required to confirm the strange world's existence.
The newfound planet, named TOI-6713.01, is the innermost world in a known planetary system with two other worlds orbiting an orange dwarf star roughly 66 light-years from Earth. The rocky planet is slightly bigger than Earth and zips around the 5 billion-year-old star every 2.2 days, astronomers reported in a study published in The Astronomical Journal in April.
"This means the planet literally glows at optical wavelengths," Stephen Kane, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Riverside who led the discovery, told Universe Today. "It was one of those discovery moments that you think, 'wow, it's amazing this can actually exist," he added in a statement.