Astronomers Discovered An Exoplanet With A Tail Like A Comet
An international team of astronomers has discovered a unique exoplanet the size of Jupiter, which is located at a distance of about 160 light years from Earth, reports The Astrophysical Journal. The planet was named WASP-69b. Its main feature is the presence of a long and distinct observable tail, like that of a comet.
Planet WASP-69 b was discovered back in 2018. Then astronomers noticed signs of helium distant from the planet in its orbit. A group of scientists from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) decided to re-check the data and used the more powerful telescope at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii.
Measurement data showed that behind the planet WASP-69 b there is indeed a gas tail extending no shorter than seven diameters of the planet, or approximately 560 thousand km. Modeling showed that the exoplanet’s atmosphere is leaking into space at a rate of 200 thousand tons per second. WASP-69 b loses one Earth’s mass approximately every billion years. This is a giant planet – the so-called hot Jupiter – and such losses are not scary for it.
It must be said that a tail is not a unique phenomenon for exoplanets. Previously, astronomers had already recorded a similar feature in some celestial bodies. But such a “powerful” tail of this size has been observed for a gas giant for the first time.
