10 Craziest Planets In The Universe

No, not Mustafar. Kepler-78b is a planet that is similar in size and mass to Earth. But there is one key difference between the two: Kepler-78b is almost all made of lava.

Discovered in 2013, this literal Hellscape orbits the star Kepler-78 in the constellation Cygnus, around 410 light years from Earth. This orbit only lasts 8.5 hours, meaning the exoplanet is incredibly close to the star; 40 times closer than Mercury to the Sun.

The nearby orbit causes the planet’s surface to reach a staggering 2,830 Celsius - 5120 Fahrenheit. At this temperature, all the atmosphere has been stripped from the planet, leaving only a large ball of molten rock and lava flows in its stead.

According to the Harvard-Smithsonian Center For Astrophysics, there is no known reason how this planet came to be formed in such conditions, but it is assumed that the orbit will eventually pull the planet into the star. Although this may take a few billion years.