{"id":154217,"date":"2022-01-13T07:15:03","date_gmt":"2022-01-13T17:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=154217"},"modified":"2026-04-17T12:21:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T22:21:21","slug":"newly-discovered-planets-swallowed-by-their-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2022\/01\/13\/newly-discovered-planets-swallowed-by-their-stars\/","title":{"rendered":"Newly-discovered planets will be ‘swallowed’ by their stars"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Artist\u2019s rendition of what a planetary system similar to the planets discovered might look like. (Credit: Karen Teramura\/IfA<\/abbr>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Astronomers at the University of Hawai\u02bbi<\/span> Institute for Astronomy<\/a> (IfA<\/abbr>) are part of a team that recently discovered three planets orbiting dangerously close to stars nearing the ends of their lives.<\/p>\n

Out of the thousands of extrasolar planets found so far, these three gas giant planets, first detected by the NASA<\/abbr> TESS<\/abbr> (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) Mission<\/a>, have some of the shortest-period orbits around subgiant or giant stars. One of the planets, TOI<\/abbr>-2337b, will be consumed by its host star in less than 1 million years, sooner than any other planet currently known.<\/p>\n

These discoveries are crucial to understanding a new frontier in exoplanet studies: how planetary systems evolve over time.
\n\u2014Samuel Grunblatt<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThese discoveries are crucial to understanding a new frontier in exoplanet studies: how planetary systems evolve over time,\u201d explained lead author Samuel Grunblatt<\/strong>, a postdoctoral fellow at the American Museum of Natural History and the Flatiron Institute in New York City. Grunblatt, who earned his PhD<\/abbr> from the IfA<\/abbr>, added that \u201cthese observations offer new windows into planets nearing the end of their lives, before their host stars swallow them up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The discovery and confirmation of the planets has been accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal<\/a><\/em>, and was announced on January 13 at an American Astronomical Society press conference. The researchers estimate that the planets have masses between 0.5\u20131.7 times Jupiter\u2019s mass, and sizes that range from slightly smaller to more than 1.6 times the size of Jupiter. They also span a wide range of densities, from the density of cork to three times denser than water, implying a wide variety of origins.<\/p>\n

These three planets are believed to be just the tip of the iceberg. \u201cWe expect to find tens to hundreds of these evolved transiting planet systems with TESS<\/abbr>, providing new details on how planets interact with each other, inflate, and migrate around stars, including those like our Sun,\u201d said Nick Saunders<\/strong>, a graduate student at IfA<\/abbr> and co-author of the study.<\/p>\n

The team hopes that this \u2018planetary archeology\u2019 will help us to understand the past, present and future of planetary systems, moving us one step closer to answering the question: \u201cAre we alone?\u201d<\/p>\n

More stories from the Institute for Astronomy<\/p>\n