A planet that moves towards its star can tell about the future of the Earth

26 December 2022, 22:25 | Technologies 
фото с Зеркало недели

For the first time, astronomers have discovered a planet that is spiraling towards its star.. According to Phys. org, potentially, it can tell about what the future holds for our Earth.

Exoplanet Kepler-1658b is a hot Jupiter, which is located at a distance of 2600 light years from Earth. It resembles Jupiter in size, but is located at a distance from its star, which is eight times the distance from Mercury to the Sun.. This makes the planet much hotter than the solar system's gas giant..

Kepler-1658b revolves around the mother star in just three Earth days and its orbit is reduced by 131 milliseconds per year.

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“If it continues to spiral towards its star at the observed speed, the planet will collide with its star in less than three million years.. This is the first time we have seen direct evidence that a planet is spiraling towards its evolved star,” said lead author Shreyas Wissapragada, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics..

A star orbiting a planet has entered a " Kepler-1658b's orbit is shrinking due to tides, much like Earth's oceans rise and fall every day.. Such a gravitational influence can work both ways - for example, the Moon is very slowly moving away from the Earth in a spiral.

According to scientists, in about five billion years, the Sun will enter the red giant phase.. The processes that are now observed with Kepler-1658b will also affect the Earth. They will lead to the fact that the orbit of our planet will be gradually reduced. However, this process can be balanced by the fact that the Sun will lose mass.

Therefore, the researchers note that "

Astronomers have previously discovered two potentially habitable planets orbiting a star located close to the Sun.. Exoplanets are only 16 light-years away, and their mass is comparable to the mass of the Earth.

Источник: Зеркало недели