In our solar system, the diminutive rocky planet Mercury maintains its position as the closest body to the scorching sun, subject to unrelenting solar radiation seven times more intense than what we experience on Earth.

Recent findings from astronomers, utilizing data collected by NASA’s now-retired Kepler space telescope, have unveiled a star in our Milky Way galaxy, encircled by a staggering seven planets, all enduring the relentless onslaught of their star’s radiant energy to a degree surpassing even Mercury’s harsh conditions.

This remarkable discovery ranks as the second-largest number of planets identified thus far around any star outside our solar system, Reuters reported.

These seven planets, while larger than Earth, our solar system’s most substantial rocky planet, are smaller than Neptune, the most compact of our four gas giants.

Importantly, their orbits are positioned even closer to their central star, Kepler-385, than Mercury’s typical distance from the sun.

Astronomer Jack Lissauer from NASA’s Ames Research Center in California, the lead author of the forthcoming study set to be published in the Journal of Planetary Science, emphasized, “Each of these planets experiences a level of ‘frying’ that exceeds the most intense conditions on any celestial body within our solar system.”

Written by B.C. Begley