Tailed Planet

The more we learn about the universe, the stranger the place becomes.

A recent study of a Jupiter-class exoplanet in extraordinarily close orbit of its parent star confirms the body has a "tail." Orbiting only 4 million miles from the star, making a complete revolution every 3.5 Earth days, the exoplanet is slowly having its atmosphere ripped away by the powerful solar wind. That process is creating a tail of lost atmosphere-- which contains oxygen and water-- in the same way comet tails are formed.