Confirmed planet with giant tail near earth

Astronomers discovered that the planet WASP-69 b has a comet-like tail, with a length of over 563,000 km, or 44 times the width of the Earth.

Simulation image of planet WASP-69 b with 'tail'

A team of experts from the University of California at Los Angeles (USA) said that the planet WASP-69 b is a gas giant with a size similar to Jupiter.

The planet orbits a star about 160 light years away from Earth. WASP-69 is so close to its star that it takes just 3.9 days for the planet to complete a full orbit around the star.

Since finding WASP-69 in 2014, scientists have discovered that the object they are studying is losing its atmosphere at a remarkable rate. Every second, the planet loses 200,000 tons of gas, mostly helium and some hydrogen.

At this rate, WASP-69 is likely to lose seven times the mass of Earth during its lifetime, estimated at about 7 billion years.

The loss of atmosphere combined with the influence of the central star has created conditions for WASP-69 to "grow a tail" as it moves through space.

Previously, scientists suspected that WASP-69 b might possess a comet-like tail, but this had never been proven until recently.

The report published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics presents the analysis of American researchers based on data collected from the WM Keck Observatory on Maunakea volcano (Hawaii state).

The results showed that the planet does have a tail, with a length of more than 563,000 km, or 44 times the width of the Earth.

WASP-69 b's tail formed when a "stellar wind" blew vaporized atmosphere away from the planet, creating a long tail as it traveled.

Stellar winds, similar to solar winds, are streams of charged particles emanating from a star. If stellar winds were absent, planetary tails would also be absent.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/xac-nhan-hanh-tinh-voi-cai-duoi-khong-lo-gan-trai-dat-185241215105957713.htm