Possible Alien Planet Smaller Than Earth May Be Lava World

Illustration: An artist’s illustration of the alien planet UCF 1.01, a potential exoplanet 33 light-years from Earth that may be covered in lava. Credit: University of Central Florida

Scientists have discovered what appears to be an alien planet just two-thirds the size of Earth, a heat-blasted world perhaps covered in molten lava, a new study reports.

Astronomers discovered the newfound alien planet, known as UCF-1.01, using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. The diminutive world is just 33 light-years away, making it a near neighbor of Earth in the cosmic scheme of things.

“We have found strong evidence for a very small, very hot and very near planet with the help of the Spitzer Space Telescope,” study lead author Kevin Stevenson, of the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando, said in a statement. “Identifying nearby small planets such as UCF-1.01 may one day lead to their characterization using future instruments.”

scinerds:

A town above the lava flow (by SBA73)

Castellfollit de la Roca is a town of approximately 1,000 inhabitants in an area of less than a square kilometre, making it one of the smallest towns in Catalonia. This small urban area is bordered by the confluence of the Fluvià and Toronell rivers, between which the town’s spectacular basalt cliff rises.

The basalt crag where the town is situated is over 50 m high, almost a kilometre long, and is the direct result of the erosive action of the rivers Fluvià and Toronell on the remains of the lava flows from the volcanic eruptions which took place thousands of years ago.

The lava, once solidified, became basalt; a hard rock which takes on different forms, depending on the cooling, contraction, and splitting processes of the lava. The cliff is the result of two lava flows; the first took place 217,000 years ago, and originated in the area of the village of Batet, and has formed slabs, the second, a more recent formation from the volcanoes of Begudà is 192,000 years old, and has formed into prismatic shapes.

scinerds:

Thurston Lava Tube

The Thurston Lava Tube, shown above, is located in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, on the Big Island of Hawaii. Here, you can take a unique walk into an easily accessible, well lit tube of hardened lava. Lava tubes are like natural pipelines through which lava travels beneath the surface after being expelled by a volcanic eruption.

Photographer: Rick Stankiewicz

Full Moon Halo over Nyiragongo Lava Lake

Copyright: Martin Rietze

inlovewithgeosciences:

Lava falls