At a distance of 140 light-years from Earth, astronomers have accidentally discovered a planet with a "tail" consisting of debris and nearly 9 million kilometers long. This may indicate that it has been collapsing for millions of years. Time on the discovered celestial body passes several times faster than on Earth. This is reported by UNN with reference to Mashable.
Details
An interesting find was discovered by a team of researchers led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with the help of NASA in the constellation Pegasus.
"We weren't looking for such a planet. I accidentally noticed this signal, which looked very unusual," said Mark Hon, lead author of the article in Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Scientists have suggested that the strange exoplanet is rapidly collapsing because the main star around which the planet revolves is so close that it actually melts it, leaving a long tail of dust.
The publication notes that with each orbit, the planet loses a volume of rock that is approximately equal to Everest. At this rate, the celestial body may completely disintegrate in 1-2 million years.
Other planets with "tails"
Until now, only three other planets with tails were known, all of which were discovered more than ten years ago. The discovered celestial body differs significantly from them due to the size of its tail and the brightness of its main star. The latter, in turn, makes it easier to observe the planet with the help of the James Webb Space Telescope, which researchers plan to continue this summer. Scientists want to study the features of the tail and determine what the planet is made of.
Researchers are now reviewing TESS data, hoping to find more planets with tails.
What is known about the discovered planet
According to the publication, it is already known that the exoplanet (code name BD+05 4868 Ab) has a size equal to Mercury and revolves around its star every 30.5 hours, that is, its year is only slightly longer than a day on Earth.
It is also known that the dust particles in the tail are quite large and the size of a grain of sand. The team believes that the star has been destroying the planet for billions of years.
The miniature size of the planet indicates that it has enough gravity to stay in its orbit.