Hubble observes star eating a planet
2010-05-21 13:10:00
A new instrument on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, called the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), has observed that the hottest known planet in the Milky Way galaxy being eaten by its parent star.
The planet may only have another 10 million years left before it is completely devoured.
The planet, called WASP-12b, is so close to its Sun-like star that it is superheated to nearly 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit and stretched into a football shape by enormous tidal forces.
The atmosphere has ballooned to nearly three times Jupiter's radius and is spilling material onto the star.
The planet is 40 percent more massive than Jupiter.
This effect of matter exchange between two stellar objects is commonly seen in close binary star systems, and this is the first time it has been seen so clearly for a planet.
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Source: sify.com
Hubble observes star eating a planet
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