Astronomers just made an incredible discovery in the universe. This new planet literally goes to pieces as it orbits its star! This exoplanet is located roughly 140 light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. It is going through in-and-of-itself a dramatic transformation as it is very, very close to its host star.
BD+05 4868 Ab completes an orbit every 30.5 hours, during which its surface temperature soars to nearly 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,600 degrees Celsius). This extreme heat literally melts the planet’s surface into magma, which then erupts and escapes into space. The fragmentation can’t be overstated. In the process, it sloughs off enough molten rock to create a new Mount Everest on each heated rotation.
BD+05 4868 Ab has a rough life given its low mass. This vulnerability is what makes its orbit around the star so inhospitable. Researchers estimate that this disintegration process will take anywhere from 1 to 2 million years. This extended timescale provides a wonderful opportunity for astronomers to observe this cosmic collision as it occurs.
Marc Hon is a postdoctoral researcher at MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. Among many other discoveries, he led the revolutionary discovery of BD+05 4868 Ab. Honan and his team have found something really cool. This planet stood out for their research as one of just four disintegrating worlds found among more than 6,000 cataloged exoplanets. The planet is literally shattering into pieces, creating a bizarre, comet-like tail of debris in its wake. This rare and fascinating phenomenon provides an enthralling opportunity for astronomers to experience first-hand.
The weird transit morphology of BD+05 4868 Ab looks like a comet with a long tail. This dramatic feature has provoked great interest in the scientific community. This observation finds intriguing potential for future, longitudinal studies. We’ve got a big summer planned this go-round, where we’ll be using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). These next frontier observations will give scientists an unprecedented opportunity to get beneath the surface and understand why our planet behaves the way it does.
The investigation of BD+05 4868 Ab provides key information about the diversity of terrestrial planets. It reveals clues to their potential habitability across other solar systems. For scientists, it’s a unique opportunity to directly measure the interior composition of this distant rocky planet. This enables them to learn more about planetary formation and evolution under extreme conditions.
