“Astronomers spot disintegrating planet with a comet-like tail”

Astronomers announced yesterday they’ve spotted an exoplanet crumbling to pieces. The doomed planet – located some 140 light-years from Earth – loses a Mount Everest’s worth of material with every 30.5-hour orbit around its star. And this material is trailing behind the planet, forming a comet-like tail that stretches some 9 million kilometers (5.6 million miles).
The disintegrating world is about the mass of Mercury, but it circles about 20 times closer to its star than Mercury does. That means it’s likely roasting at around 1,600 degrees Celsius (3,000 F), and covered in magma that’s boiling off into space. And as it loses mass, the planet’s gravity weakens, allowing more and more material to fall away. This runaway process is expected to continue until the planet is completely disintegrated, some 1 or 2 million years in the future.








