One Orbit, One Everest Lost: A Planet Evaporates Into a 9-Million-Kilometer Tail

Astronomers from MIT have uncovered a dramatic celestial spectacle: a Mercury-sized exoplanet that is rapidly disintegrating as it orbits perilously close to its star. The small and rocky lava world sheds an amount of material equivalent to the mass of Mount Everest every 30.5 hours. The planet, located 140 light-years away, completes an orbit every [...]