A discovery occurred earlier this year, thanks to Hubble Space Telescope observations, which proved difficult to interpret: the first-ever detection of an evaporating exoplanet.
“Most previous observations had been targeted to detect the presence of very massive planets, which we know are rare, that had carved out large inner holes or gaps in bright disks,” said Paola Pinilla, a NASA Hubble Fellow at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory. “While massive planets had been inferred in some of these bright disks, little had been known about the fainter disks.”
Today’s eclectic coverage of TV programs broadcast on the state of affairs on our pale blue planet, signaling our presence to other possible civilizations in the Milky Way.
“This is a whole sequence of planets that can give us insight into the evolution of planets, in particular around a star that’s very different from ours, with different light coming off of it,” said Andrew Lincowski at the University of Washington. “It’s just a gold mine.”
