NASA confirms highly reflective lava planet with unusual orbiting behavior.

A planet that glints like molten metal and circles its star in under a day has been confirmed by NASA’s Kepler and TESS missions, joining a growing roster of ultra‑short‑period worlds that defy conventional expectations. The new world, whose surface is thought to be a searing sea of lava, completes an orbit in just 22 hours, making it one of the fastest‑moving planets ever recorded. Its extreme proximity to its host star means it is constantly bombarded by intense radiation, giving it a highly reflective, mirror‑like appearance that can be detected from Earth.

Scientists have long known of Mercury’s swift trek around the Sun, a 88‑day circuit that earned the planet its mythic name after the Roman messenger god. But the discovery of planets that orbit in less than 24 hours shows that Mercury is sluggish by comparison. The ultra‑short‑period (USP) class emerged only after Kepler’s decade‑long survey revealed dozens of such bodies, and TESS has now added several more to the list. These planets are thought to be the stripped cores of larger worlds that lost their gaseous envelopes under the relentless glare of their stars, leaving behind dense, rocky remnants that endure temperatures high enough to melt rock.

The reflective lava world offers a natural laboratory for testing theories of planetary formation and survival under extreme conditions. Its high albedo suggests a surface covered in molten silicates that constantly re‑solidify, creating a bright, ever‑changing façade. Researchers plan to observe the planet with the James Webb Space Telescope to map temperature variations and search for atmospheric remnants. Understanding how such worlds retain any material at all could reshape models of how close‑in planets evolve. If the planet’s surface can remain molten for billions of years, it may also hint at similar processes shaping other, less extreme exoplanets across the galaxy.