Researchers developed a model showing how lava-covered planets close to their stars can hold onto their atmospheres, which could help guide the search for life beyond our solar system.

Some planets orbit so close to their stars that intense radiation should strip away their atmospheres. Yet several of these scorching, lava-covered worlds still retain thick gaseous envelopes, presenting a challenge to a framework scientists use to predict which rocky planets can hold onto their air.

Stanford researchers now propose an explanation. Their model, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, suggests that molten surfaces can regulate how quickly gases escape from a planet’s interior. By slowing that release, lava can allow atmospheric replenishment to keep pace with losses caused by stellar radiation, preserving an atmosphere for billions of years.