{"id":797510,"date":"2025-07-29T05:55:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T10:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=797510"},"modified":"2025-07-29T05:55:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T10:55:07","slug":"this-baby-exoplanet-is-shrinking-toward-a-sad-destiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=797510","title":{"rendered":"This baby exoplanet is shrinking toward a sad destiny"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_516861\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-516861\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-516861\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">View larger. | Artist\u2019s concept of TOI 1227 b. The baby exoplanet, about the size of Jupiter, is gradually losing its atmosphere and shrinking in size due to intense X-ray radiation from its red dwarf star. The inset shows the actual star in X-ray light from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Image via X-ray: NASA\/ CXC\/ RIT\/ A. Varga et al.; Illustration: NASA\/ CXC\/ SAO\/ M. Weiss; Image Processing: NASA\/ CXC\/ SAO\/ N. Wolk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>TOI 1227 b is a young, Jupiter-sized exoplanet 330 light-years away.<\/strong> It orbits close to its small, cool red dwarf star.<\/li>\n<li><strong>NASA\u2019s Chandra X-ray Observatory observed the planet<\/strong> and found that intense radiation from the star is slowly destroying the planet\u2019s deep atmosphere.<\/li>\n<li><strong>TOI 1227 b will completely lose its atmosphere<\/strong> in about a billion years, scientists say. As a result, it will shrink to about 1\/10 of its current size.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Meet TOI 1227 b<\/h3>\n<p>Planets are born in disks of gas and dust around stars. Then they grow larger as they gradually accumulate material. But NASA\u2019s Chandra X-ray Observatory has found a young gas giant planet that is <em>shrinking<\/em>, instead. A team of researchers from the U.S., Germany and Australia said on July 16, 2025, that the planet \u2013 currently about the size of Jupiter and called TOI 1227 b \u2013 is slowly losing its atmosphere. In fact, they estimate its atmosphere will entirely disappear in about a billion years from now. The planet will shrink to about 1\/10 of its current size. Why? Because intense X-ray radiation from its host red dwarf star is bombarding this ill-fated world.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers used data from Chandra to measure the amount of X-rays coming from the star. This helps them determine how much the radiation is actually affecting the planet\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p>TOI 1227 b is about 330 light-years from Earth. It orbits much closer to its red dwarf star than Mercury orbits our sun. Its orbit is about five times closer to its star than Mercury\u2019s orbit is to the sun. It is also a young planet, at only 8 million years old. That\u2019s still a baby, planetary-wise! The star, TOI 1227, is only 1\/10 the mass of the sun and much cooler.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers\u2019 new paper has been accepted for publication in <em>The Astrophysical Journal<\/em>. A preprint version is available on arXiv, which was submitted on June 4, 2025.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Quick Look: NASA&#039;s Chandra Finds Baby Exoplanet is Shrinking\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0datlwQoj90?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/><em>Quick Look: NASA\u2019s Chandra finds baby exoplanet is shrinking. Video via NASA\/ CXC\/ SAO\/ A. Jubett\/ YouTube<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h3>Baby exoplanet is now shrinking<\/h3>\n<p>TOI 1227 b is still young at 8 million years old; it\u2019s just a baby, basically. Like living things, planets grow after they are first born. This happens as they accumulate gas and dust from the surrounding protoplanetary disk around their stars. As of now, TOI 1227 b is about the size of Jupiter. But it is no longer growing. In fact, it is now <em>shrinking<\/em> in size. Why?<\/p>\n<p>The planet orbits close to a red dwarf star that emits powerful bursts of X-ray radiation. As often happens, those bursts are pummeling the young planet and gradually stripping away its atmosphere. Consequently, this loss of atmosphere decreases the overall size of TOI 1227 b. As Attila Varga, a Ph.D. student at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in New York, explained:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>It\u2019s almost unfathomable to imagine what is happening to this planet. The planet\u2019s atmosphere simply cannot withstand the high X-ray dose it\u2019s receiving from its star.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure id=\"attachment_516885\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-516885\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/earthsky.org\/upl\/2025\/07\/Attila-Varga-Rochester-Institute-of-Technology.jpeg\" alt=\"Smiling man with yellow dress shirt and gray jacket, with a projector screen behind him.\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" class=\"size-full wp-image-516885\" srcset=\"https:\/\/earthsky.org\/upl\/2025\/07\/Attila-Varga-Rochester-Institute-of-Technology.jpeg 500w, https:\/\/earthsky.org\/upl\/2025\/07\/Attila-Varga-Rochester-Institute-of-Technology-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/earthsky.org\/upl\/2025\/07\/Attila-Varga-Rochester-Institute-of-Technology-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/earthsky.org\/upl\/2025\/07\/Attila-Varga-Rochester-Institute-of-Technology-400x400.jpeg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\"\/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-516885\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Attila Varga, a Ph.D. student at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, is the lead author of the new study about TOI 1227 b. Image via LinkedIn.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>Sad future for TOI 1227 b<\/h3>\n<p>The researchers said TOI 1227 b will likely lose its atmosphere completely, in about a billion years. That means its overall size will diminish greatly, from Jupiter-sized to a small barren rocky world. It will also lose much of its mass, from 17 Earth masses now, to only two Earth masses a billion years from now. The planet is losing the equivalent of Earth\u2019s entire atmosphere about every 200 years. Co-author Alexander Binks at the Eberhard Karls University of T\u00fcbingen in Germany said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The future for this baby planet doesn\u2019t look great. From here, TOI 1227 b may shrink to about 1\/10 of its current size and will lose more than 10 percent of its weight.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>On a more positive note, however, it\u2019s unlikely that TOI 1227 b has ever hosted any life that would now be facing extinction. Being a gaseous world like Jupiter and so close to its star make the planet most likely uninhabitable, at least for life as we know it.<\/p>\n<p>TOI 1227 b is also the second youngest planet ever to be observed passing in front of \u2013 or transiting \u2013 its host star. In addition, it has the longest year and the lowest mass of any known exoplanet less than 50 million years old.<\/p>\n<p>Bottom line: NASA\u2019s Chandra X-ray Observatory has found a baby exoplanet that is slowly losing its atmosphere and shrinking as it is pummeled by radiation from its star.<\/p>\n<p>Source (preprint): The Age and High Energy Environment of the Very Young Transiting Exoplanet TOI 1227b<\/p>\n<p>Via Chandra X-ray Observatory<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"cp-load-after-post\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"post-author\">\n<h4>Paul Scott Anderson<\/h4>\n<p>                    View Articles\n                  <\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-tags\">\n<h6 data-udy-fe=\"text_7c58270d\">About the Author:<\/h6>\n<p>Paul Scott Anderson has had a passion for space exploration that began when he was a child when he watched Carl Sagan\u2019s Cosmos. He studied English, writing, art and computer\/publication design in high school and college. He later started his blog The Meridiani Journal in 2005, which was later renamed Planetaria. He also later started the blog Fermi Paradoxica, about the search for life elsewhere in the universe.&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\nWhile interested in all aspects of space exploration, his primary passion is planetary science and SETI. In 2011, he started writing about space on a freelance basis with Universe Today. He has also written for SpaceFlight Insider and AmericaSpace and has also been published in The Mars Quarterly. He also did some supplementary writing for the iOS app Exoplanet.&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\nHe has been writing for EarthSky since 2018, and also assists with proofing and social media.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/earthsky.org\/space\/baby-exoplanet-toi-1227-b-chandra-x-ray-observatory\/?rand=772280\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>View larger. | Artist\u2019s concept of TOI 1227 b. The baby exoplanet, about the size of Jupiter, is gradually losing its atmosphere and shrinking in size due to intense X-ray&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":797511,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-797510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-earth-sky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=797510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/797511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=797510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=797510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=797510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}