One of the exoplanets that Webb will study is called 55 Cancri e; has some earthy qualities but is super hot. It’s a kind of planet called Super-Earth, which means it’s potentially rocky like Earth, but it’s bigger than our planet, though not as big as an ice giant like Neptune (via NASA). With an orbit of only 1.5 million miles from its star, which is 4% of the distance between Mercury and the sun, a year there lasts only 18 hours. This means that the planet is close and personal to its star, so it is extremely hot and bombarded by radiation.
In fact, the planet is so hot on the surface that temperatures are high enough to melt the rock. This leads researchers to believe that the planet must be covered with oceans of lava, as the rocks melt from the heat of the star. In addition, the planets orbiting about 55 Cancri e are believed to be tidal locked, meaning that one side of the planet is always facing its star. Usually this side, called the day side, will get much hotter than the space-facing side called the night side. And strange meteorological phenomena can occur when there is a large difference in temperature between these two halves of the planet.
On the tidal-locked exoplanet WASP-121b, temperature differences mean there may be clouds of metal and rain of liquid gems (via MPI). However, something strange is happening at 55 Cancri e, as readings from the Spitzer Space Telescope have shown that the hottest part of the planet does not seem to be on par with the part facing the star.
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