Artist’s impression of a hot Neptune
© Getty, NASA
A strange planet discovered with NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has A astronomers confused. Despite getting relentlessly bombarded with radiation from its red giant parent star, the world has hung on to its atmosphere against all odds. It is also smaller, older and hotter than scientists thought possible for such a planet. In truth, the exoplanet should be a bare husk of rock due to its proximity to the star TIC 365102760, located around 1,800 light years away from Earth. Yet the world, nicknamed ‘Phoenix’, has emerged from the flames of its host star with a nice and puffy atmosphere.
Phoenix, or TIC 365102760 b as the planet is officially designated, is part of a rare class of planets called hot Neptunes. These are worlds with radii smaller than Jupiter’s, but larger than Earth’s. And unlike the Solar System’s ice giant of the same name, hot Neptunes dwell relatively close to their host stars. Phoenix might be an incredible survivor, but the roughly 10-billion-yearold planet’s luck and resilience won’t last forever. The team that discovered it predicts that it will spiral into its giant star in around 100 million years.