A distant planet seems to have a sulphur-rich atmosphere, hinting at alien volcanoes

By Agnibha Banerjee, PhD Student, The Open University

Today, we know of more than 5,000 exoplanets: planets outside our solar system that orbit other stars. While the effort to discover new worlds goes on, we’re steadily learning more about the exoplanets we’ve already detected: their sizes, what they’re made of and whether they have atmospheres.

Our team has now provided tentative evidence for a sulphur-rich atmosphere on a world that’s 1.5 times the size of Earth and located 35 light years away. If confirmed, it would be the smallest known exoplanet with…

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