DECRYPTION – Kepler-1658b is approaching its star and risks ending up in shreds.
For Kepler-1658b, it seems to be the last dance. The exoplanet would have entered a fateful waltz with its star, getting closer to it with each revolution, according to the observations of an American team of astronomers. At this rate, the exoplanet could be torn apart by its star in just a few million years. This work was published Monday in the journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters .
It is not quite the first time that we have witnessed such a spectacle. The planet Wasp-12b was suspected in 2018 to be more or less in the same situation, and many complementary studies have since confirmed it. For the moment, the situation is a little less clear for Kepler-1658b, but various experts interviewed by Le Figaro think this is the most likely scenario to explain the current observations.
“What’s really neat is that we’re entering a phase where we’re starting to have enough data…
This article is for subscribers only. You have 83% left to discover.
Pushing back the limits of science is also freedom.
Keep reading your article for €0.99 for the first month
Already subscribed? Login