Meet COROT-7b, the Planet that has Oceans of Lava
How cool would it be to surf on a planet with an ocean of lava? Not very cool. In fact, it would be hot. Very hot. Hot enough to melt Iron.
A lot of the things that we find in space leave us intrigued, they create even more questions than they solve. Astronomy is the one area where Science leads sci-fi.
Such is the case with COROT-7b. COROT is a french-led satellite for detecting exoplanets using the photometric transit method, in which an exoplanet is identified by looking out for the tiny dips in the amount of light from a star that reaches us when the exoplanet passes in between the star and the us in its orbit.
COROT-7b, was a planet that COROT discovered and announced in February 2009.It was, and still is, an exoplanet with one of smallest radius to be discovered. COROT-7b has a radius that is 1.58x that of Earth. It also has an extremely short orbital period of 20 hours.
The distance between COROT-7b and its host star is insanely small. It's 23 times smaller than the distance between Mercury and our Sun. If you look at Mercury, it already has surface temperatures exceeding 400°C.
So how hot is it on the surface of COROT-7b?
It's about 1800-2600°C.
To put that into perspective, Iron has a melting point of 1500°C. Steel has a melting point of 1300°C. Titanium melts at a comparable 1800°C. The only thing that would maintain solidity at that temperature is Tungsten, which melts at an incredible 3400°C.
To make this planet even more ridiculous, let's consider the fact that it is (probably) tidally locked.
This means that one side of the planet always faces the sun, while the other side remains in darkness.So that one side is just roasted, while the other side is extremely cool. Such a wide difference between the 2 sides means that life will most likely never evolve on such a planet,except maybe a tiny area where the 2 sides meet. And oh yeah as a bonus, because there is so much lava, if the orbit of COROT-7b is disturbed, you get massive volcanic activity.
The atmosphere on COROT-7b is so metal. Like literally, metal falling out of the sky.
Because the surface temperature is so high, a lot of the the minerals in the rocks just evaporate into the air.Obviously, what goes up must come down. So if you go out on a tour, you may get to endure the pain experience the pleasure of rain composed of Magnesium,Aluminium and Iron hitting your skin. And the atmosphere is made of Sodium, so it's just great if you want to torture yourself to death improve your health by moving to a location with better weather.
So COROT-7b is a planet where you can surf the lava oceans, feel the fresh Magnesium rain touching your skin, and rejuvenate your lungs by breathing in the Sodium atmosphere!
COROT-7b - So that's why Venus is considered Earth's Sister Planet in spite of being so deadly.
Furiously trys to book tickets to COROT-7b so he can make a travel post on Steemit and earn a billion dollars.
Thanks for reading this post. If you liked it, please follow me for more content like this :-)
Other Recent Posts
Over a 100 million Android users are being spied upon by over 500 apps
Flying Cars could be a reality by the 2020s (and my thoughts on them)
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by harshal from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews/crimsonclad, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.