NASA: Hubble Finds Super Hot Planet With Comet-Like Tail

Using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers found a scorched gas giant planet that could be called a cometary planet, according to a NASA press release.

The planet, known as HD 209458b, got its tail because it orbits so closely to its star. Its heated atmosphere is then casting off into space. The astronomers suggested that powerful stellar winds are sweeping the escaping atmospheric material behind the planet and shaping it into a comet-like tail.

The planet is located 153 light years away from Earth. Although it weighs less than Jupiter, it orbits 100 times closer to its star than Jupiter does. The super hot planet orbits around its star in merely three and a half days, much shorter than the orbiting period of the fastest planet in our solar system—88 days.