Monday, July 14, 2025

This Earth-sized Exoplanet is On a Death Spiral

This artist's illustration shows an Ultra-Short Period (USP) planet orbiting its star. A newly-discovered USP runs the risk of either being torn to pieces by its star or being sucked in and destroyed. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Schaller (for STScI)

An international team of astronomers have discovered an Earth-size exoplanet on a very tight orbit around its star. It completes an orbit in only 5 hours and 22 minutes. Unfortunately, the planet will either be torn to pieces or crash into its star in about 31 million years.



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