Located 2,600 light-years from Earth, Kepler-1658 b is an exoplanet – that is, a planet outside the solar system – about the size of Jupiter.
But unlike this gas giant farther from the sun, Kepler-1658b orbits its star only an eighth of the distance separating our star from Mercury, the planet closest to it.
this is Hot Jupiter
It orbits its star in less than three days, and that revolution period is shortened by about 131 milliseconds per year, according to a study published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letter (A new window)rupee (A new window) (in English).
At this rate, the planet will collide with its star in less than three million years.
Analysis Shreyas Vissapragada, MD, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, is the lead author of the study.
” This is the first direct evidence of a planet orbiting its aging star. »
The star in question is at an advanced stage in its cycle, when it begins to bulge and get brighter and brighter.
Kepler-1658 b’s orbit is inexorably decreasing under the influence of gravity exerted by the star, similar to the gravity exerted by the Moon on various points on Earth. This effect, called the tidal force, can attract two objects as well as separate them – the moon, for example, is moving very slowly away from the earth in a spiral path.
Will our planet experience the same process of disintegration?
The death of a planet due to a star is a fate awaiting many worlds and could be a final farewell to Earth billions of years from now as our Sun evolves.
writes the Center for Astrophysics in a press release.
In about 5 billion years from now, it will become the Sun red giant
Which will get bigger and bigger, similar to Kepler-1658 b’s host star.
Like an exoplanet, the Earth can inexorably approach the Sun under the influence of tidal forces. But this effect can also be counterbalanced by the loss of mass from the Sun, specifies Shreyas Visapragada, noting that Earth’s ultimate fate remains unclear
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Kepler-1658 b was the first exoplanet to be spotted by the Kepler Space Telescope in 2009. For 13 years, scientists have observed the slow but steady change in the orbit of the planet as it passes in front of its host star.
Finding it surprisingly bright compared to other exoplanets, they have long assumed that it particularly reflects starlight. They now believe Kepler-1658 b is hotter than expected due to the star’s gravity.
