After 40 days of data acquisition, the Alarm mode pipeline algorithm detected the shallow signal of CoRoT-7b, starting the follow-up observations from the ground to get a confirmation of the planetary nature of the transiting object.

The strong activity of the host star, which perturbates radial velocity measurements, made the mass determination troublesome.

The CoRoT team then published a second paper on CoRoT-7b's mass,[12] removing stellar activity through analysis only of radial velocity data for which multiple measurements were taken in a given night.

A last study by Ferraz-Mello et al.[13] improved the approach used in the discovery paper, finding that it downsized the amplitude of the planets' induced radial velocities.

[20][21] Other researchers dispute this, and conclude CoRoT-7b was always a rocky planet and not the eroded core of a gas or ice giant,[22] due to the young age of the star system.

Any departure from circularity of its orbit (due to the influence of host star and neighboring planets) could generate intense volcanic activity similar to that of Io, via tidal heating.

On the permanent nightside, the surface is cool enough for the formation of the crust with pools of lava above the convective mantle with intense volcanism.

[25] Researchers also investigated the physical state of the interior of CoRoT-7b,[26] indicating as likely a solid iron core, thus a self-generated magnetic field should be absent on the planet.

Due to the high temperatures on the illuminated side of the planet, and the likelihood that all surface volatiles have been depleted, silicate rock vaporization may have produced a tenuous atmosphere (with a pressure approaching 1 Pa or 10−2 mbar at 2,500 K [2,230 °C; 4,040 °F]) consisting predominantly of sodium, O2, O and silicon monoxide, as well as smaller amounts of potassium and other metals.

[15][19][27] Magnesium (Mg), aluminium (Al), calcium (Ca), silicon (Si), and iron (Fe) may rain out from such an atmosphere on the planet's daylight side in the form of particles of minerals, such as enstatite, corundum and spinel, wollastonite, silica, and iron (II) oxide, that would condense at altitudes below 10 km (6.2 mi).

[15][19] Observations carried out with the UVES spectrograph on CoRoT-7b in and out of transit, searching for emission and absorption lines originating in the exosphere of the planet, failed to detect any significant feature.

The lack of detections is in agreement with the previously cited theoretical work,[24] which points to a cloudless atmosphere made of rocky vapours with a very low pressure.