The James Webb Space Telescope has taken a sharper look at 55 Cancri e, a rocky world so close to its star that its surface is hot enough to melt rock. The new readings point to a real atmosphere holding on above what may be an ocean of magma.
That is a strange place for an atmosphere to survive. Studying how gas behaves over molten rock helps scientists understand young, hot planets and the earliest chapters of worlds like our own.
Why it matters: Every planet where Webb can read the air is a test of what rocky worlds are actually made of, and a lava planet is about the hardest test there is.