Discovered: Exoplanet with two tails

In a first, a team of researchers in Canada and Switzerland has discovered an exoplanet, which has not one, but two tails

[An artist’s concept of the double-tailed planet WASP-121 b. The tails span nearly 60% of the planet’s orbit around its star. They form as the atmosphere of the ultra-hot Jupiter is escaping into space. (Image via Benoit Gougeon/ University of Montreal)]

In a first, a team of researchers in Canada and Switzerland has discovered an exoplanet, which has not one, but two tails.

The Canadian and Swiss astronomers discovered the first of its kind exoplanet having two tails of helium gas that extend around most of the planet’s orbit about its star using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

Astronomers have previously seen single planetary tails before, but never pairs.

Moreover, this is the first time they’ve observed a tail throughout a complete orbit of a planet, according to EarthSky.org.

"WASP 121b"

The exoplanet named WASP-121 b, classified as ‘ultra-hot Jupiter’, is about 880 light-years away. Radiation from its star is gradually stripping away the planet’s atmosphere.

An exoplanet (or extrasolar planet) is any planet that orbits a star outside our Solar System. WASP-121b, also known as Tylos, is orbiting so near its star that a single trip around it requires only 30 hours.

The planet’s upper layers encounter radiation intense enough to heat the atmosphere by thousands of degrees.

Scientists aren’t sure why there are two tails instead of the usual one for such planets. But they suspect that both stellar winds and gravitational forces from the star are involved.

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