"Astronomers found an atmosphere where they least expected itclinging to an exoplanet that's too small, too hot and too old to have air, at least in theory. James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations of the blazing-hot lava planet TOI-561 b suggest not only that it has a thick atmosphere but also that it may have had one for billions of years."
"It is definitely surprising and exciting to find a substantial atmosphere on this hot rocky planet, he says. In our solar system, atmospheres obey a simple rule: bigger, cooler worlds hold onto their air, and smaller, warmer ones don't. But TOI-561 b weighs in at just two Earth masses and is very, very hot; the planet orbits so close to its orange dwarf star that its years last less than an Earth day, and its estimated temperature is"
TOI-561 b is a rocky lava world with roughly two Earth masses that orbits an orange dwarf in under a day and reaches extremely high temperatures. JWST observations detect a substantial, thick atmosphere around the planet and indicate that the atmosphere may have persisted for billions of years. The atmosphere does not appear to be a transient hydrogen-helium envelope leftover from formation. Atmospheric retention on such a small, old, and ultrahot planet contradicts expectations based on simple mass-temperature rules and implies revisions to models of atmospheric escape, surface volcanism, and long-term planetary evolution.
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