The Planets around Tau Ceti may be fairly volcanic

[stevebowers]

Here's Andrew LePage on Tau Ceti e
http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=32470

Tau Ceti e: MPsini=4.3 ME, Seff=1.51

The Sun-like star Tau Ceti has generated much interest over the decades among scientists looking for habitable planets. Unfortunately its relatively high level of activity has complicated efforts to find verifiable planets orbiting this star using precision radial velocity measurements. Despite the outstanding issues, one of the purported planets of Tau Ceti announced two year ago has been claimed by some to be potentially habitable. Tau Ceti e was discovered using precision radial velocity measurements but remains unconfirmed. Ignoring this issue for the moment, the analysis of the available data yields a minimum mass of 4.3 ME which appears to be near the lower end of the mass range where rocky planets transition to volatile-rich planets. Factoring in the unconstrained inclination of this planet’s orbit, there is a two in three chance that its mass exceeds the 6 ME threshold mass making it more likely to be a mini-Neptune. Its effective stellar flux also exceeds by a fair margin that for the conservative definition of the HZ. Taking all this information together, it seems that Tau Ceti e is more likely to be a hot mini-Neptune than a potentially habitable planet. These facts along with the questionable existence of this world make Tau Ceti e to be a very poor habitable planet candidate.

Even if we assume the most favourable density for this world it is still probably a bit too warm; a warm superterrestrial waterworld perhaps, or a mini-neptune.