Astronomers have identified a planet that is about to collide with the aging sun, potentially offering a glimpse into how Earth will end one day.
A team of mostly US based researchers hope the doomed exoplanet Kepler-1658b can help shed light on how worlds die as their stars get older.
The "hot Jupiter" planet is 2,600 light-years away.
The host star of the planet is an eighth of the way between our Sun and Mercury, making it much hotter than the gas giant in our own Solar System.
According to a study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, it takes less than three days for Kepler-1658b to circle its star.
The planet will collide with its star in less than three million years if it continues to spiral.
He told Agence France-Presse that this is the first time they have seen direct evidence for a planet spiraling towards a star.
An evolved star has entered the subgiant phase of the stellar life cycle when it begins to expand and become brighter.
In a similar way to how Earth's oceans rise and fall every day, the moon's orbit is being shortened by the tides.
The Moon is slowly moving away from Earth, and this can be done either way.
Could Earth be headed for the same doom?
"Death-by-star is a fate thought to await many worlds and could be the Earth's ultimate adios billions of years from now," the Center for Astrophysics said.
The Sun will become a red giant star in five billion years.
The Sun losing mass could counteract the effect of the tidally-driven processes seen on the planet.
He said that the fate of the Earth is not clear.
The first exoplanet ever to be observed by the Kepler space telescope was named "Kern-1658b". It took nearly a decade of work before the planet was confirmed in 2019.
Astronomers were able to observe the planet's path as it crossed the face of its host star over the course of 13 years.
Vissapragada said that the planet is bright.
He said that it had been thought that it was because of its reflective nature.
The researchers think the planet is much hotter than they thought because of the same forces that are driving it towards its star.
Agence France- Presse.
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