A story on FoxNews covers the latest finding on a rocky body found outside of our solar system.

From the article:

Because the planet is so close to the star, it is gravitationally locked to it in the same way the Moon is locked to Earth. One side of the planet always faces its star, just as one side of the Moon always faces Earth.

This star-facing side has a temperature of about 4,220 degrees Fahrenheit (2,326 degrees Celsius) — hot enough to vaporize rock.

So unlike the much cooler Earth, COROT-7b has no volatile gases (carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrogen) in its atmosphere. Instead it's atmosphere consists of what might be called vaporized rock.

"The only atmosphere this object has is produced from vapor arising from hot molten silicates in a lava lake or lava ocean," said Bruce Fegley Jr., of Washington University in St. Louis.

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Read the full article here.www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,558545,00.html