On this planet, you may stay up all year long

Of course, this is not an Earth year that lasts 8760 hours. The newly discovered exoplanet found by MIT scientists orbits only 2.4 million kilometers from Earth stars. Due to the proximity of the star, a year on the planet lasts only 16 hours. Its lightning-fast orbit makes it the shortest orbit of any known gas giant.

The planet closest to its star

Due to its proximity to its star, this gas giant belongs to the category of superheated gas giants. It is five times larger than Jupiter. Because the planet is so close to its star, its daily side is estimated to be around 3,500 K. The incredibly high temperature makes TOI-2109b just as hot as a small star. TOI-2109b’s astonishing surface temperature makes it the second largest exoplanet ever discovered. Astronomers believe TOI-2109b is undergoing an orbital decay process that will eventually cause the planet’s host star to engulf. The closer it is to its star, the faster its speed will increase, shortening the length of the planet’s year. TOI-2109b was discovered with NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), giving astronomers the opportunity to study how the planet behaves as it progresses through orbital decay as it approaches the star.

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The study’s lead author on the discovery, Ian Wong, says that if scientists are lucky, they will be able to figure out how a planet approaches its star within a year or two. As for how long it will take TOI-2109b to be absorbed by its star, it won’t happen in our lifetime. Wong thinks the planet may disappear in another 10 million years.

Source: SlashGear