The Kepler Space Telescope was launched back in 2009 to observe more of outer space. The first planet that the telescope discovered would have never been known to exist if it weren’t for the telescope! The discovery was written off as a faulty observation, but in 2019, astronomer Ashley Chontos confirmed the existence of the planet. This exoplanet was named Kepler 1658b. However, Chontos has recently also informed us about the fate of this planet. It is only a matter of time before this planet dies.
Planets stay in orbit due to the gravity of the star acting on the planet. However, sometimes this can also lead to the planet spiraling toward, and ultimately plummeting into the star. According to Chontos, the planet will meet its doom when it falls into its host star. The planet only has about another 2.5 million years before this happens, and in the cosmic timeline, this is quite a short period.
Copyright @smorescience. All rights reserved. Do not copy, cite, publish, or distribute this content without permission.
