This ‘Wet Lava Ball’ in Space Somehow Clings to an Atmosphere

Scientists have discovered the strongest evidence yet of a rocky planet with an atmosphere outside the solar system, challenging previous notions that small planets that orbit closely to their stars are unable to sustain a thick blanket of gases.

TOI-561 b orbits a 10-billion-year-old star located about 280 light-years from Earth and has a vast magma ocean. Using NASA’s Webb Space Telescope, a team of researchers probed the ultra-hot super-Earth exoplanet and found evidence suggesting…