This Disintegrating Planet Leaves a Destructive Trail Spanning Over 5 Million Miles
An artist's interpretation of BD+05 4868 Ab, a dissolving exoplanet with a long tail. (Jose-Luis Olivares/MIT)Astronomers have identified one of the most inhospitable exoplanets ever seen—a tiny world being scorched by its parent star and trailing a massive, comet-like plume of vaporized rock behind it.A Molten Planet with a Vapor TailWhile much of exoplanet research...