"Mega Earth" discovered

[radtech497]

A new class of exoplanet has been discovered. 17 times Earth's mass, yet still rocky. If we use this in the setting, what type of life/ environment could you see this type of world having?

http://news.discovery.com/space/alien-li...140602.htm

A few quick BOTE calculations gives a tide-locked planet with a day and year of 45 days (semi-major axis = 0.239 AU), a surface temperature of at least 750 K at the substellar point (cooling to at least 500 K before reaching the terminator), high surface winds blowing in from the "dark side" toward the substellar point, a mean surface gravity of 3.211 g, and mostly (if not totally) cloud-free skies. If there is any liquid on the surface, it is likely to be liquid sulfur. Depending on the thickness of the atmosphere, the "dark side" is probably much cooler than the starlit hemisphere.

This environment is inhospitable to carbon-based life-forms composed of proteins and other Terragen biomolecules, which would decompose at those temperatures. However, silicon-based life might be possible there. [IIRC, my "sandbox" has a silicone-based species living under similar thermal conditions]

Just a thought or three,

Radtech497