Hot, rocky exoplanets are the scorched cores of former gas giants
The planets are nestled close to their stars, where stellar winds may have blown ancient atmospheres away
![55 Cancri e](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/102717_LG_rocky-exoplanet_main.jpg?fit=860%2C460&ssl=1)
NOT LIKE HOME Rocky super-Earth 55 Cancri e, seen in this artist’s illustration, is about Earth’s size, but a new study suggests it and other similar hot exoplanets probably formed in a completely different way than Earth did.
Hubble, ESA and M. Kornmesser