Explanation:
Even though Kepler-78b is only slightly larger than the Earth, it should not
exist. Its size is extraordinary only in the sense that it is the most similar
in size to the Earth of any exoplanet yet directly discovered. Its orbit,
however, is extraordinary in the sense that it circles a Sun-like star 40 times
closer than planet Mercury. At such a scathing distance, even rock is liquid.
Models of planet formation predict that no planet can form in such a close
orbit, and models of planet evolution predict that Kepler-78b's orbit should
decay -- dooming the planet to eventually merge with its parent star.
Illustrated above in comparison with the Earth, Kepler-78b was discovered by
eclipse with the Earth-orbiting Kepler spacecraft and further monitored for
subtle wobbles by the HARPS- North, a spectrograph attached to the 3.6-meter
Telescopio Nazionale Galileo in the Canary Islands.
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