An Exoplanet With A Comet-Like Giant Tail
Recently astronomers made an unexpected discovery. They found a planet called WASP-69b with a giant comet-like gas tail that was bigger than ever. What's causing such behaviour and what can we learn about hot Jupiters? Finding out with Dakota Tyler from the University of LA.
Watch the video here (with no ads) or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/0RSZCNVskcQ
Comments (1)
Two questions popped into my head and now I want them to pop into yours :-) 1) If WASP-69b is not the only planet in the WASP system wouldn't the ejected mass of 200,000 tons every second eventually be collected by planets further out in the system? I'm thinking of the same process that cleans up the planets' orbit. 2) Could the origin of WASP-69b be a binary star companion to the WASP-69 K star? If it started out much larger but not as big as the main star, would it be possible that the main star initially siphoned off material to the point where the companion ends up as just a hot Jupiter sized planet, which now is in the process of getting depleted through stellar winds?