US EditionA Star Is Dissolving Its Baby Planet
ABOUT 330 LIGHT-YEARS FROM EARTH, JUL 16 – TOI 1227 b, only 8 million years old, is losing atmosphere at a rate equal to Earth's atmosphere every 200 years due to intense X-ray radiation from its red dwarf star.
- In 2022, astronomers identified TOI-1227b, an exoplanet about the size of Jupiter with roughly one-fifth its mass, orbiting an M-dwarf located approximately 330 light-years from Earth, using data obtained by NASA's TESS mission.
- This finding builds on previous research indicating that TOI-1227b is extremely young—around eight million years—and is experiencing swift atmospheric erosion driven by strong stellar radiation.
- Researchers found the planet loses roughly one million metric tons of atmosphere every second and may shed more than 10% of its mass within a billion years.
- Co-Author Alvarado-Montes emphasized that this planet’s unique characteristics offer valuable insight into unexplained astronomical phenomena, underscoring its role as a key example for studying the early development of exoplanets.
- The planet's fate implies planets orbiting close to stars may shrink or be destroyed, and continued observations will refine models of such atmospheric loss and orbital decay.
12 Articles
12 Articles
NASA is watching an exoplanet shrink under a tremendous force
Astronomers have taken a close look at one of the youngest known exoplanets and found it's on the receiving end of relentless brutality. This giant baby world, TOI 1227b, is about the size of Jupiter but much lighter — more like a puffed-up version of Neptune, about 330 light-years from Earth. But the distant planet likely won't stay that size for long, because the star that birthed it is blasting it with X-rays, causing it to puff up and blow a…
A Star is Dissolving its Baby Planet
Astronomers have found a young star bathing a planet in intense X-ray radiation, wearing it away at a rapid rate. The planet is Jupiter-sized and orbits its red dwarf star at a fifth the distance from Mercury to the Sun. It's only 8 million years old, and researchers estimate that within a billion years, it will lose its entire atmosphere, going from 17 Earth masses down to just 2 Earth masses. They estimate that it's losing an Earth's atmospher…
A star is dissolving its baby planet
Stars and planets are naturally associated with one another. While some planets have gone rogue and are drifting through space, the vast majority are in solar systems, where they're gravitationally bound and orbit their stars in predictable ways. But some planets stray too close to their stars, with dire consequences. These exoplanets have something to teach us about the exoplanet population.
TOI 1227 b is a young planet. But its fate is predetermined: its sun blows away the atmosphere and makes it shrink.
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