Meet BD+05 4868 b — one of the most extreme exoplanets ever found. Located 140 light-years away, this scorching world orbits its star every 30.5 hours, putting it 20 times closer than Mercury is to our Sun.
At that range, the heat is so intense it’s vaporizing the planet’s rocky surface, creating a dust tail over 9 million kilometers long — nearly half of its orbit!
Nicknamed the “melting Mercury”, this tiny planet is losing mass fast — about the size of Mount Everest every orbit. With weak gravity and a shrinking core, scientists believe the planet could completely vanish within 1 to 2 million years.
But there’s a silver lining: this doomed planet’s dusty trail gives astronomers a rare chance to study the interior makeup of a rocky exoplanet — potentially unlocking secrets of how planets form and what makes them habitable.
Research by: Marc Hon et al., The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2025)
Title: "A Disintegrating Rocky Planet with Prominent Comet-like Tails around a Bright Star"
#Exoplanet #SpaceDiscovery #Astronomy #MeltingPlanet #ScienceNews #Cosmos #JWST #SpaceDust #PlanetHunting #Astrophysics
At that range, the heat is so intense it’s vaporizing the planet’s rocky surface, creating a dust tail over 9 million kilometers long — nearly half of its orbit!
Nicknamed the “melting Mercury”, this tiny planet is losing mass fast — about the size of Mount Everest every orbit. With weak gravity and a shrinking core, scientists believe the planet could completely vanish within 1 to 2 million years.
But there’s a silver lining: this doomed planet’s dusty trail gives astronomers a rare chance to study the interior makeup of a rocky exoplanet — potentially unlocking secrets of how planets form and what makes them habitable.
Research by: Marc Hon et al., The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2025)
Title: "A Disintegrating Rocky Planet with Prominent Comet-like Tails around a Bright Star"
#Exoplanet #SpaceDiscovery #Astronomy #MeltingPlanet #ScienceNews #Cosmos #JWST #SpaceDust #PlanetHunting #Astrophysics
Meet BD+05 4868 b — one of the most extreme exoplanets ever found. Located 140 light-years away, this scorching world orbits its star every 30.5 hours, putting it 20 times closer than Mercury is to our Sun.
At that range, the heat is so intense it’s vaporizing the planet’s rocky surface, creating a dust tail over 9 million kilometers long — nearly half of its orbit!
Nicknamed the “melting Mercury”, this tiny planet is losing mass fast — about the size of Mount Everest every orbit. With weak gravity and a shrinking core, scientists believe the planet could completely vanish within 1 to 2 million years.
But there’s a silver lining: this doomed planet’s dusty trail gives astronomers a rare chance to study the interior makeup of a rocky exoplanet — potentially unlocking secrets of how planets form and what makes them habitable.
Research by: Marc Hon et al., The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2025)
Title: "A Disintegrating Rocky Planet with Prominent Comet-like Tails around a Bright Star"
#Exoplanet #SpaceDiscovery #Astronomy #MeltingPlanet #ScienceNews #Cosmos #JWST #SpaceDust #PlanetHunting #Astrophysics
