Astronomers in Europe have discovered the first solid planet outside our Solar System. But seeing as how it's got a surface temperature of around 2000 degrees F, it's probably not somewhere you want to go on your next vacation.

From Geeks are Sexy:

Staff at the European Southern Observatory first detected an object orbiting a star named TYC 4799-1733-1 early last year; as an orbiting object outside our solar system, the object is classed as an exoplanet. The star and exoplanet were later renamed CoRoT-7 and CoRoT-7b respectively.

Since announcing the discovery in February this year, the astronomers have put together more detail about it. They already knew the radius of the planet, its orbit time, and the distance between it and the star. After gathering together data from more than 70 hours of observation and working out how long it takes the object to revolve, they were able to calculate that the planet’s mass is around five times that of Earth.

Now knowing both the radius and mass of CoRoT-7b, the astronomers believe it must be a solid or “rocky” planet similar to that of Earth, Mercury, Venus and Mars.

Not only is it the first solid exoplanet discovered, but with a radius around 80% bigger than Earth, CoRoT-7b is closer in size to our own planet than any other known exoplanet, regardless of substance.

There is a pretty significant difference though: its temperatures are around 2000 degrees Celsius during the day and minus 200 at nighttime. Didier Queloz, who led the research, says it’s likely the surface is home to lava or boiling oceans and “may well look like Dante’s Inferno.” (Picture, courtesy of ESO, shows artists impression.)