HD 3167 b Archives

Artist’s depiction of HD 3167 b, a super Earth exoplanet that orbits a K-type star. (Illustration courtesy of NASA)

Atmosphere Detected On The Coldest Lava World To Date

by Keith CowingSeptember 3, 2026September 3, 2026

[University of Chicago] In the search for extraterrestrial life, it makes sense to first look for rocky planets with an atmosphere, like Earth. Without an atmosphere, a planet can’t have […]

The night-side surface temperatures for different minimum eccentricities for K2-141b, at its present day orbit.

Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Status Report

Coupled Orbital And Interior Structure Evolution Of Lava Planets

by Keith CowingApril 24, 2026April 24, 2026

Lava planets likely did not form in their current orbits, instead migrating inward via orbital decay, which influenced the evolution of their magma oceans.

Best-fit white light (5.06–10.55 µm) curves of HD 3167 b’s secondary eclipse from our SPARTA (blue), Eureka! (red), and exoTEDRF (green) reductions. (Top) Binned raw white light fluxes. The best-fit full SPARTA model (with integration-level x decorrelation), Eureka, and exoTEDRF models are shown alongside the quadratic ramp component shown as dashed lines. (Middle) Binned fluxes after dividing by the best-fit systematics model for each reduction. Retrieved eclipse depths and uncertainties are shown on the right. (Bottom) Binned residuals of the best-fit full models. For all plots, Eureka!/exoTEDRF data are offset by 0.001/0.002 days for visual clarity. -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Status Report

An Atmosphere On The Ultra-Short Period Super-Earth HD 3167 b

by Keith CowingApril 17, 2026April 17, 2026

‘Lava worlds’-Earth-sized planets hot enough (Teq >~ 1100 K) to melt their dayside silicate surfaces-have emerged as promising candidates for atmospheric detection and characterization. Thermal emission observations show an apparent […]