Scientists in Spain today announced the discovery of planet Corot-7b. Although there have been several suspected terrestrial worlds discovered outside the solar system, this is the first to be reliably confirmed and the most similar to Earth. Its size is about three times Earth's diameter without about five times the mass, but the planet's extremely tight orbit puts surface temperatures on the sunward side at about 3600 degrees Fahrenheit. Meanwhile it's far below freezing on the planet's dark side. The European Southern Observatory has released an image of what it might look like from Corot-7b's orbit. -- Original update published on September 16, 2009
If it has atmosphere... I suppose there could be life on it, perhaps say at the median where the temperatures are most moderate?
Possibly. In either case, life is unlikely - at that temperature, and that close to the sun, any atmosphere would be stripped quickly.
