
Alien planet is so hot it's tearing itself apart - RickJWagner
https://www.foxnews.com/science/alien-planet-so-hot-tearing-itself-apart
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RickJWagner
There's a link to the academic source in the article, but it's written at a
level high enough that I don't feel legitimate linking it in place of this
simpler version.

I'm sure there are OP that can speak to / understand that one.

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pnako
I have a question about the artist depiction on the article. Why is the gas
shooting outward? Shouldn't it stay on the same path as the planet due to
gravity? Like a comet.

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eesmith
It's being blown away by the solar wind. With an orbital period of only 1 1/2
(Earth) days, it's really close to the star.

Like how a comet's tail(s) are formed.

Note that a comet may has a gas tail and a dust tail -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_tail](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_tail)

> The streams of dust and gas each form their own distinct tail, pointing in
> slightly different directions. The tail of dust is left behind in the
> comet's orbit in such a manner that it often forms a curved tail called the
> antitail, only when it seems that it is directed towards the Sun. At the
> same time, the ion tail, made of gases, always points along the streamlines
> of the solar wind as it is strongly affected by the magnetic field of the
> plasma of the solar wind. The ion tail follows the magnetic field lines
> rather than an orbital trajectory.

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pnako
Awesome, thanks for the explanation. So it's not just because it's gas, but
because it's plasma.

Reading more about this planet, I learned it was found by KELT, the Kilodegree
Extremely Little Telescope, which is a funny name (if you consider that
scientists usually have "big things" like the Large Hadron Collider, the
Kilometer Square Array, etc.)

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eesmith
Truth in advertising? They are extremely little.
[https://keltsurvey.org/telescopes](https://keltsurvey.org/telescopes) shows
images.

More likely the name is for the humor.

