Odd planet's extreme global warming: Highs of 2240 - The Associated Press- About: Global Warming News

WASHINGTON (AP) — Astronomers have found a planet with a galactic case of hot flashes. In just six hours, this planet four times the size of Jupiter heats up by more than 1,200 degrees, according to a study published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. But in the few hours it whips around its sun the planet gets zapped with mega-heat, pushing the thermometer closer to 2,240 degrees. During its brief close pass to its sun, the planet is 10 times nearer its star than Mercury is to our sun. The planet circles its star — the larger of two stars in a binary system — in a comet-like orbit in just 111 days. There's a 15 percent chance that amateur astronomers using small telescopes could see it swing by, obscuring a tiny part of the star, Laughlin said. read more

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