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Scientists think they have identified a lava world so dramatic that it might boast a thin regional atmosphere of vaporised rock where it is closest to its star. That exoplanet is called K2-141b, and was originally discovered in 2017. The world is about half as big as Earth, but orbits so close to its star, which is one class smaller than our own, that it completes several loops each Earth day with the same surface permanently facing the star.