Kepler 7-b was one of the first five planets to be confirmed by the Kepler spacecraft. Orbiting just 5.6 million miles (9 million km) from its host star in the constellation Lyra, the planet sizzles with a surface temperature between 1,500 and 1,800 degrees F (815-980 degrees C). While that’s twice as hot as our solar system’s scorcher planet Venus, scientists were puzzled why Kepler-7b wasn’t even hotter given how close it is to its sun. Kepler tracked the hot world through its moon-like phases for more than three years to create a rough map that showed a bright spot...