Desintegrando-se | Disintegrating

Esta concepção artística representa uma cauda semelhante à de um cometa de um possível candidato a planeta em desitegração do tamanho de um super Mercúrio enquanto ele transita, ou cruza, sua estrela-mãe, chamada KIC 12557548. 

Os resultados são baseados em dados da missão Kepler da Nasa. A uma distância orbital de apenas duas vezes o diâmetros de sua estrela, a temperatura superficial do planeta potencial é estimada em 1.816 graus Celsius. 

A essa alta temperatura, a superfície se derreteria e evaporaria. A energia do vento resultante seria suficiente para permitir o escape de gás e poeira para o espaço, criando uma trilha de poeira que bloqueia intermitentemente a luz da estrela.

Usando a missão Kepler, astrônomos podem ter detectados  pistas de um possível planeta se desintegrando sob o calor de sua estrela-mãe, localizada a 1.500 anos-luz da Terra.



Orbitando uma estrela menor e mais fria que nosso Sol, o candidato a planeta completa sua órbita em menos de 16 horas - uma das mais curtas já detectadas.

Cientistas especulam que o lado voltado para a estrela do potencial inferno rochoso seja um oceano de magma.

Observações adicionais serão necessárias para confirmar o candidato como planeta.

This artist's concept depicts a comet-like tail of a possible disintegrating super Mercury-size planet candidate as it transits, or crosses, its parent star, named KIC 12557548. The results are based on data from NASA's Kepler mission. At an orbital distance of only twice the diameter of its star, the surface

temperature of the potential planet is estimated to be a sweltering 3,300 degrees Fahrenheit (1,816 degrees Celsius). At such a high temperature, the surface would melt and evaporate. The energy from the resulting wind would be enough to allow dust and gas to escape into space creating a trailing dusty effluence that intermittently blocks the starlight. 

 Using NASA's Kepler mission, astronomers may have detected evidence of a possible planet disintegrating under the searing heat of its host star located 1,500 light-years from Earth. Similar to a debris-trailing comet, the super Mercury-size planet candidate is theorized to fashion a dusty tail. But the tail won't last for long. Scientists calculate that, at the current rate of evaporation, the dusty world could be completely vaporized within 200 million years.

A research team led by Saul Rappaport, professor emeritus of physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, has identified an unusual light pattern emanating from a star named KIC 12557548 in the Kepler space telescope's field-of-view.

Kepler detects planets and planet candidates by measuring dips in the brightness of more than 150,000 stars to search for planets crossing in front, or transiting, their stars.

"The bizarre nature of the light output from this star with its precisely periodic transit-like features and highly variable depths exemplifies how Kepler is expanding the frontiers of science in unexpected ways," said Jon Jenkins, Kepler co-investigator at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute in Mountain View, Calif. "This discovery pulls back the curtain of how science works in the face of surprising data."

Orbiting a star smaller and cooler than our sun, the planet candidate completes its orbit in less than 16 hours - making it one of the shortest orbits ever detected. At an orbital distance of only twice the diameter of its star, the surface temperature of the planet is estimated to be a smoldering 3,300 degrees Fahrenheit (1,816 degrees Celsius).

Scientists hypothesize that the star-facing side of the potentially rocky inferno is an ocean of seething magma. The surface melts and evaporates at such high temperatures the energy from the resulting wind is enough to allow dust and gas to escape into space. This dusty effluence trails behind the doomed companion as it disintegrates around the star.

Additional follow-up observations are needed to confirm the candidate as a planet.