A planet that is constantly exploding.

This discovery reminds me of some people I know. Mashable reports on the discovery 66 light years away of solar system “HD 104067,” with a planet so roiled by the graivty of its nearest neighbors that it’s covered in active volcanos to the point that it’s constantly exploding:

In a distant solar system some 66 light-years away, researchers used NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to spot a volcano-blanketed world new to science. It’s covered in volcanoes because the other two planets in this system have forced it into an unusual elliptical orbit, which tugs and squeezes the world, roiling the interior.

The deep space situation is similar to what’s happening on Jupiter’s moon Io, an orb that’s relentlessly locked in a tug-of-war between nearby Jovian moons. This dynamic squeezes and stretches Io, stoking lava to pour out of volcanoes.

“This is a terrestrial planet that I would describe as Io on steroids,” Stephen Kane, a planetary astrophysicist at UC Riverside, said in a statement. “It’s been forced into a situation where it’s constantly exploding with volcanoes. At optical wavelengths you would be able to see a glowing, red-hot planet with a molten lava surface.”


You can read more of the “perfect tidal storm” twisting HD 104067’s volcanic planet here, in The Astronomical Journal.