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Thursday, January 18, 2024 – 8:08 a.m. WIB
Jakarta – A comet-like planet outside our solar system is losing more of its atmosphere in its giant tail than previously thought, fascinating astronomers and raising new questions about how planets co-evolve with their host stars.
Reported LIVE techno out of SpaceThursday, January 18, 2024, exoplanet WASP-69b, a hot, bloated gas giant planet 160 light-years from Earth and orbiting its host star in 3.9 days, first gained notoriety in 2018 when astronomers discovered a gas tail from the comet’s escaping star resembles from the planet’s atmosphere.
The tail, once thought to consist of just a tiny trace of helium particles, is now estimated to be at least 350,000 miles (563,270 kilometers) long as its atmosphere is blown away by its parent star’s solar wind.
Tyler shared new data on WASP-69 b’s atmosphere leaked from the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, which is also described in a paper published this week in the Astrophysical Journal.
Recent observations show that its atmosphere is peeling away from the planet at a rate of 200,000 tons per second, forming a huge comet-like tail the likes of which has never been seen before.
The new findings are due in large part to the Keck Observatory’s large telescope mirror, which collected more light than previous telescopes used to observe WASP-69b.
But it’s possible that the mirrors also change the behavior of the star WASP-69, which astronomers call stellar variability, Tyler said. “It is difficult to know exactly what kind of variability is occurring in the star itself.”
Thanks to its gas-emitting atmosphere, WASP-69b loses one Earth’s mass every billion years, which is “quite a lot,” Tyler said, “but for a hot Jupiter, that’s not that much.”
Observing the sweeping tail will shed light on how WASP-69b’s atmosphere interacts with its host star, explaining the evolution of the planet and its host star.
“For most known exoplanets, we suspect that the period of atmospheric loss is long past,” study co-author Erik Petigura of UCLA said in a statement. “The WASP-69b system is a gem because we have a rare opportunity to study atmospheric mass loss in real time and understand the crucial physics that shape thousands of other planets.”
In addition to its scientific appeal, the planet’s resilience to relentless stellar winds also serves as a powerful reminder of perspective, Tyler said in the statement.
“Despite the many challenges we may face, such as WASP-69b, we have what it takes to continue moving forward.”
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