A recent study revealed that the first exoplanet discovered by the Kepler Space Telescope is on a spiral trajectory towards its most mature stardestined to impact and suffer a “total destruction“. Astronomers estimate that this might be the very end of the earthbillions of years from now.
It’s regarding the alien planet Kepler-1658bdiscovered in 2019, which is bigger than Jupiter and it takes 3.8 days to complete an orbit of its star, named Kepler-1658. It is 0.0544 astronomical units (AU) from its “sun”, that is, more than 8 million kilometers, but it’s getting closer and closer.
The “Christmas Asteroid” approaches Earth: it measures 140 meters and can be seen in some countries
This was revealed by the research published this Monday in the scientific journal “The Astrophysical Journal Letters”, which reveals other perspectives on the disintegration process of planetary orbits. The study highlights that it is the first time that a system that is in such an advanced stage of evolution has been recorded.
The author of the discovery, astronomer Ashley Chontos, from Princeton University, revealed in an interview: “Unfortunately, it is falling into spiral towards his host star. To the planet has regarding 2.5 million years left before facing a fierce death. Will end up being swallowed”.
For his part, Shreyas Vissapragada, a fellow at the Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and one of the lead authors of the study, noted that indications of exoplanets that are inspired by their starsbut one of its kind had never been seen around an evolved star before.
“Theory predicts that evolved stars are very efficient at draw energy from the orbits of their planetsand now we can test those theories with observations,” he added.
Kepler-1658b is a “hot Jupiter,” nicknamed by researchers because of its mass and size similar to those of the largest planet in the solar system, but in much closer and scorching orbits to their host stars.
For comparison, the distance of this exoplanet from its star is regarding one one-eighth of the distance between Mercury and our sun (almost 58 million miles or 0.4 AU).
The “star death” of Kepler 1658b
The study was made with the collection of data captured by three telescopes. There, they analyzed the information: periodic dips in starlight that indicate that a planet is crossing and briefly blocking the light from its star. They then found that over the past 13 years, the interval between transits of Kepler-1658b has decreased slightly but steadily.
As to what is causing orbital decay, the researchers suggest that it might be because of the tides, the same phenomenon responsible for the daily rise and fall of waves in the Earth’s seas. These are generated by gravitational interactions between two orbiting bodies, such as between the Earth and the Moonor between Kepler-1658b and its star.
NASA confirmed the existence of more than 5 thousand planets beyond the solar system
Besides, the Kepler’s star-1658b has evolved to point of its stellar life cycle in which it has begun to expand, just as our Sun is expected to do -which is currently in the Main Sequence of stellar evolution-, and has entered what astronomers call a subgiant phase.
The Subgiants eventually they become Red Giants: Dying stars in the final stages of their evolution, with large, puffy atmospheres that pulsate.
fp / ds
You may also like
