<h2>Another One</h2>
<p>When scientists first detected the comet &#8216;Oumuamua in 2017, it dominated the news cycle as the first interstellar object that we&#8217;ve seen pass through our solar system.</p>
<p>But new research suggests that &#8216;Oumuamua wasn&#8217;t the first interstellar visitor at all. In fact, another one like it may have impacted Earth back in 2014, <a href="https://www.space.com/second-interstellar-object-a-meteor-discovery.html">according to <em>Space.com</em></a>.</p>
<h2>Unusual Trajectory</h2>
<p>The new research hasn’t yet been published, but it&#8217;s available on the <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.07224">preprint server ArXiv</a> as of Monday. In it, Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb — the same dude who doubled down on the idea that &#8216;Oumuamua <a href="https://futurism.com/alien-probe-harvard-astronomer-oumuamua">could be an alien spacecraft</a> — suggests that a three-foot-wide interstellar meteor flew over Papa New Guinea&#8217;s Manus Island before crashing down.</p>
<p>Because of the meteor&#8217;s high speed and particular trajectory past Earth, Loeb and his student Amir Suraj suggest that it couldn&#8217;t have been bound in an orbit about the Sun. Rather, they argue, it might have come from somewhere beyond our solar system.</p>
<h2>Small Crowd</h2>
<p>Suraj and Lobe pored over three decades&#8217; worth of data from NASA&#8217;s database of objects that pass near Earth to look for other meteors with similarly-unusual trajectories. They only found one other that may have originated from outside the solar system — but now that they&#8217;ve developed the new technique, scientists may be able to keep an eye out going forward.</p>
<p>&#8220;We can use the atmosphere of the Earth as the detector for these meteors, which are too small to otherwise see,&#8221; Loeb told <em>Space.com</em>.</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE:</strong> <a href="https://www.space.com/second-interstellar-object-a-meteor-discovery.html">The First Known Interstellar Meteor May Have Hit Earth in 2014</a> [<em>Space.com</em>]</p>
<p><strong>More on &#8216;Oumuamua:</strong> <em><a href="https://futurism.com/interstellar-rocks-form-earth">Interstellar Visitor Like ‘Oumuamua May Have Formed Earth’s Core</a></em></p>


"We can use the atmosphere of the Earth as the detector for these meteors, which are too small to otherwise see."

An interstellar rock like 'Oumuamua may have hit Earth in 2014

Under Attack

Harvard astronomers found evidence that 'Oumuamua isn't the only interstellar visitor we've had in recent years. Others may have crashed into the Earth.

An Interstellar Rock Like ‘Oumuamua May Have Hit Earth In 2014

The Harvard professor who says 'Oumuamua might have been an alien ship says something like it hit Earth a few years ago.

<h2>Big Release</h2>
<p>On Wednesday morning, astronomers from the Event Horizon Telescope, a collaborative network of telescopes and astronomy research facilities around the world, are expected to release the <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/astronomers-teasing-first-ever-black-hole-photo">first ever pictures</a> of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. Accompanying it will be a picture of an even larger black hole in the Virgo constellation.</p>
<p>In the past, images of black holes have been limited to pictures of the stuff surrounding them, <a href="https://futurism.com/black-hole-image-devouring-galaxy">or to computer models</a>. The<em> New York Times</em> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/08/science/black-hole-photo.html">interviewed a number of astronomers</a> who are excited to really see a black hole for the first time, and have visual evidence that confirms years of scientific speculation.</p>
<h2>Ready For The Close-Up</h2>
<p>For some researchers, the draw is just the wow factor.</p>
<p>&#8220;Yes, I&#8217;m definitely excited to see the image!&#8221; University of Chicago scientist Daniel Holz told the <em>Times</em>. &#8220;It’s not really rational, since I know the math works and the theory has been thoroughly tested. But still, this would be a picture of the real thing, up close and personal. That is super cool.&#8221;</p>
<p>Yale astrophysicist Priyamvada Natarajan echoed Holz&#8217;s sentiment: &#8220;It&#8217;s exciting, even just technically, to get this up close and personal to a black hole.&#8221;</p>
<p>That excitement is understandable — a giant black hole, scientifically confirmed just a few years ago, holds our galaxy together. And yet we have no idea what it looks like, other than artists&#8217; renderings of black spheres.</p>
<h2>Best Guesses</h2>
<p>No one, aside from the scientists leading the Event Horizon Telescope project, knows what to expect from Wednesday&#8217;s reveal. The <em>Times</em> writes that existing data suggest the black holes will look like a tiny dot illuminated by nearby stars and radiation.</p>
<p>But the shape of the black holes could be circular, ovate, or even twisted depending on the black holes&#8217; rotation. More importantly, the image will likely show whether the equations scientists use to describe black holes are correct.</p>
<p>Until Wednesday, we&#8217;ll just have to wait and see.</p>
<p>&#8220;For the first time,&#8221; the <em>Times</em> wrote, &#8220;astronomers will be staring down the pipes of eternity.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE:</strong> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/08/science/black-hole-photo.html">Expected Soon: First-Ever Photo of a Black Hole</a> [<em>The New York Times</em>]</p>
<p><strong>More on the black hole pictures:</strong> <em><a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/astronomers-teasing-first-ever-black-hole-photo">Astronomers Are Teasing the First-Ever Photo of a Black Hole</a></em></p>


"It's exciting, even just technically, to get this up close and personal to a black hole."

Here's why everyone's so excited about the black hole image

On The Event Horizon

On Wednesday morning, an international team of scientists will release the first-ever images of black holes. Quite understandably, scientists are pumped.

Here’s Why Everyone’s so Excited About the Black Hole Image

A "planet-sized" telescope is about to release first-of-their-kind images.

<h2>Formidable Fragment</h2>
<p>The death of its star wasn&#8217;t enough to destroy a planet 400 light years away from Earth. Not totally, anyway.</p>
<p>For just the second time ever, astronomers have <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/emb_releases/2019-04/uow-hmp040119.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found a fragment</a> of a planet circling around one of the small, dense remains of a star known as a white dwarf.</p>
<p>Even cooler: This is the first such discovery made using spectroscopy, a technique that could make it far easier to detect similar fragments in the future — and astronomers believe those fragments could help us better understand not only other solar systems, but also our own.</p>
<h2>New Technique</h2>
<p>The first time astronomers detected a solid body orbiting a white dwarf, they did so using the &#8220;transit method&#8221; — essentially, they were looking at just the right place when the fragment passed between the white dwarf and the Earth, which caused a detectable dip in the light from the star.</p>
<p>In a <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6435/66" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> published in the journal <em>Science</em> on Thursday, astronomers from the University of Warwick detail how they used the Gran Telescopio Canarias in La Palma to study a star with the not-at-all-pithy moniker SDSS J122859.93+104032.9.</p>
<p>This time, they used spectroscopy to analyze the gas around the star, leading to the discovery of the planet fragment.</p>
<p>According to their study, the fragment is likely at least one kilometer (.62 miles) wide, but its diameter could be as much as a few hundred kilometers (186 miles). It&#8217;s positioned extremely close to the white dwarf, making a full orbit around it every two hours, and it was likely able to survive the destruction of its planetary system thanks to a sturdy iron and nickel composition.</p>
<h2>Looking (Far) Ahead</h2>
<p>Researcher Christopher Manser said in a <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/emb_releases/2019-04/uow-hmp040119.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release</a> that the team already knows of several other solar systems with debris discs similar to that of SDSS J122859.93+104032.9, so they plan to begin looking for fragments around those next.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are confident that we will discover additional planetesimals orbiting white dwarfs,&#8221; Manser said, &#8220;which will then allow us to learn more about their general properties.&#8221;</p>
<p>And given that our own Sun will one day die, anything that we can learn about white dwarfs will essentially help us better understand the <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/our-sun-harden-giant-crystal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">future of our own solar system</a>.</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE: </strong><a href="https://phys.org/news/2019-04-heavy-metal-planet-fragment-survives.html">Heavy metal planet fragment survives destruction from dead star</a> [<em>Phys.org</em>]</p>
<p><strong>More on white dwarfs:</strong><em> <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/our-sun-harden-giant-crystal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">In About 10 Billion Years, Our Sun Will Harden Into a Giant Crystal</a></em></p>


And they already think they know where to look for others like it.

Astronomers discover fragment of planet orbiting its dead star

Lonely Planetesimal

Astronomers have discovered a planetary fragment orbiting a white dwarf, and it could yield new insights into the future of our own solar system.

Astronomers Discover Fragment of Planet Orbiting Its Dead Star

If Earth ever seems bad, remember this poor planet!

<h2>Cut My Life Into Pieces</h2>
<p>A few months ago, astronomers noticed that a well-known asteroid that orbits the sun way out past Mars had sprouted a long, comet-like tail.</p>
<p>Now, data from the <a href="https://futurism.com/hubble-image-triangulum-galaxy">Hubble Telescope</a> reveals that something has set 6478 Gault off kilter and it&#8217;s self-destructing, spinning itself into pieces.</p>
<p>&#8220;It could have been on the brink of instability for 10 million years,&#8221; University of Hawaii astronomer Jan Kleyna, who led the research into Gault&#8217;s new tail, said in <a href="https://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1906/">a press release</a>. &#8220;Even a tiny disturbance, like a small impact from a pebble, might have triggered the recent outbursts.&#8221;</p>
<h2>This Is My Last Re-YORP</h2>
<p>Scientists from NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) suspect that Gault has fallen victim to the YORP effect, in which sunlight hitting the asteroid heats its surface, causing a shift in the asteroid&#8217;s momentum.</p>
<p>Sometimes, as the astronomers suspect is the case with Gault, this momentum can speed up the asteroid&#8217;s spin to the point that it begins to disintegrate. The long tail that appeared in January could be debris given off by a series of landslide as Gault began to spin faster.</p>
<p>While NASA and ESA scientists approximate that roughly one of the 800,000 asteroids orbiting between Mars and Jupiter goes through a so-called YORP disruption every year, being able to directly study the materials that Gault shreds off of itself could help astronomers better understand the history of our solar system.</p>
<h2>Disintegration, Debrising</h2>
<p>But the YORP effect may not spell doom for Gault. <em><a href="https://www.thisisinsider.com/nasa-hubble-telescope-gault-asteroid-spinning-apart-images-2019-3">Insider </a></em><a href="https://www.thisisinsider.com/nasa-hubble-telescope-gault-asteroid-spinning-apart-images-2019-3">reports</a> that it&#8217;s certainly possible that 6478 Gault could disintegrate into nothing. But it&#8217;s also possible that the asteroid&#8217;s gravitational pull will manage to hold enough debris together that a new version of Gault is reborn.</p>
<p>&#8220;In all cases, this will release a lot of dust, which will be spectacular,&#8221; Olivier Hainaut, another astronomer who worked on the research, told Business Insider. &#8220;The radiation pressure from the sun will disperse the dust, leaving either the new Gault or the binary/multiple system behind.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE:</strong> <a href="https://www.thisisinsider.com/nasa-hubble-telescope-gault-asteroid-spinning-apart-images-2019-3">The Hubble telescope caught an asteroid ripping itself to pieces due to the &#8216;YORP effect&#8217;</a> [<em>Insider</em>]</p>
<p><strong>More on Hubble: </strong><em><a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/wounded-hubble-borrowed-time">The Wounded Hubble Could be Back Soon, But It&#8217;s on Borrowed Time</a></em></p>


Astronomers just spotted an asteroid ripping itself apart

John Gault

A distant asteroid named 6478 Gault likely fell prey to the YORP effect — sunlight caused it to spin so fast that it's ripping apart.

Astronomers Just Spotted an Asteroid Ripping Itself Apart

6478 Gault is spinning itself into pieces.

<h2>Hole Story</h2>
<p>An international team of researchers says it&#8217;s found 83 new supermassive black holes at extreme end of the visible universe — by looking at light that took so long to reach Earth that it dates from the early universe.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is remarkable that such massive dense objects were able to form so soon after the Big Bang,&#8221; said Michael Strauss, a professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University involved in the research, in a <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/news/2019/03/13/astronomers-discover-83-supermassive-black-holes-early-universe">press release</a>. &#8220;Understanding how black holes can form in the early universe, and just how common they are, is a challenge for our cosmological models.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Squad Goals</h2>
<p>The discovery was made by 48 astronomers around the world who described the findings in five new papers in <em>The Astrophysical Journal</em> and the <em>Publications of the Astronomical Observatory of Japan</em>.</p>
<p>The finding was based on data taken with the Hyper Suprime-Cam, a &#8220;cutting-edge instrument&#8221; at the Subaru Telescope at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, in Hawaii, which the researchers combined with readings from three more powerful telescopes around the world.</p>
<h2>Quasar Theory</h2>
<p>The newly-discovered black holes are quasars, which shoot out matter in powerful jets. The researchers are hoping that more datagathering and analysis will shed light onto how some of the earliest quasars in the universe formed.</p>
<p>&#8220;The quasars we discovered will be an interesting subject for further follow-up observations with current and future facilities,&#8221; said Yoshiki Matsuok, a researcher at Ehime University who worked on the discovery. &#8220;We will also learn about the formation and early evolution of [super massive black holes], by comparing the measured number density and luminosity distribution with predictions from theoretical models.&#8221;</p>
<div>
<p><strong>READ MORE: </strong><a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/astronomers-discover-83-supermassive-black-holes-at-the-edge-of-the-universe/">Astronomers discover 83 supermassive black holes at the edge of the universe</a> [<i>CNET</i>]</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><strong>More on black holes:</strong> <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/black-hole-milky-way">New Image Confirms a Black Hole is Swallowing Our Galaxy</a></p>
</div>


"It is remarkable that such massive dense objects were able to form so soon after the Big Bang."

Astronomers just found 83 giant black holes at universe's edge

Hole Wheat Bread

An international team of researchers says it's found 83 new supermassive black holes at extreme end of the visible universe.

Astronomers Just Found 83 Giant Black Holes at Universe’s Edge

Don't worry, these monsters are too far away to hurt us.

<h2>Cosmic Growth Hormones</h2>
<p>Cosmologists have a new guess about why the universe is expanding outward faster than data says it ought to.</p>
<p>The hypothesis, <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1811.04083.pdf">according to research</a> first shared on the preprint server <em>ArXiv</em> in November, goes as follows: When the universe was just a mere 100,000 years old, a mysterious energy field that scientists are calling &#8220;early dark energy&#8221; formed, rapidly pushing the still-forming cosmos outward even faster than before.</p>
<p>Another 100,000 years after that, the research suggests, the strange energy field faded away — and left the young, accelerated universe to its own devices.</p>
<h2>Let&#8217;s Back Up</h2>
<p>This new proposal is one of several intended to solve the discrepancy between the calculated rate of the universe&#8217;s expansion and actual observations of the cosmos as they rocket outward away from us, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/25/science/cosmos-hubble-dark-energy.html">according to <em>The New York Times</em></a>.</p>
<p>Right now, the observable universe is expanding 9 percent faster than calculations suggest it did at the beginning of time. Scientists currently operate under the assumption that a <a href="https://futurism.com/dark-energy-survey-discovers-remnants-other-galaxies-own">mysterious force called dark energy</a> drives the universe&#8217;s expansion. The periodic appearance of energy fields akin to &#8220;early dark energy&#8221; could explain the various periods of increased acceleration in the history of the universe, reports the<em> NYT.</em></p>
<p>In fact, it could explain them well enough to account for the entire discrepancy between astronomers&#8217; calculations and their observations.</p>
<p>&#8220;Maybe the universe does this from time-to-time?&#8221; Adam Riess, a Johns Hopkins University scientist who is also working to <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1604.01424v1">consolidate that discrepancy</a> but didn&#8217;t contribute to the new research, told the <em>NYT</em>. He added that it&#8217;s &#8220;not the first time the universe has been expanding too fast.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Breaking New Ground</h2>
<p>Other explanations for the up-and-down acceleration of the universe&#8217;s growth rate would mean introducing yet-undiscovered types of subatomic particles or simply poring back over previous calculations to look for errors, reports the<em> NYT</em>.</p>
<p>And while finding that some scientist made some error along the way would be more pragmatic, the ideas that involve previously-unexplored aspects of physics, like early dark energy fields or new kinds of particles, are gaining ground.</p>
<p>&#8220;I was surprised how it came out,&#8221; Marc Kamionkowski, a Johns Hopkins cosmologist who was part of the study, told the <em>NYT</em>. &#8220;This works.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE:</strong> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/25/science/cosmos-hubble-dark-energy.html">Have Dark Forces Been Messing With the Cosmos?</a> [<em>The New York Times</em>]</p>
<p><strong><em>More on dark energy: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/new-theory-universe-bubble-inflated-dark-energy">New Theory: The Universe is a Bubble, Inflated by Dark Energy</a></em></strong></p>


"This is not the first time the universe has been expanding too fast."

Bizarre new theory: something tampered with the early universe

Growing Pains

Cosmologists have long sought to reconcile differences among calculations and observations of how fast the universe is growing. A new idea may explain how.

Bizarre New Theory: Something Tampered With the Early Universe

Did a mysterious energy field mess with the universe?

<h2>The Geocorona</h2>
<p>A light layer of hydrogen atoms called the geocorona separates Earth&#8217;s atmosphere from outer space. And it extends far beyond Earth — much farther than previously believed.</p>
<p>Data collected by NASA and the European space agency&#8217;s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a spacecraft that launched in 1995 to study the Sun, suggests that this gaseous layer extends up to 391,000 miles (630,000 km) from Earth — which, strikingly, is 50 times Earth&#8217;s diameter and almost twice the distance to the Moon.</p>
<h2>Water Vapor</h2>
<p>And that&#8217;s a big deal, because planets with traces of hydrogen in their atmospheres have a much higher chance of containing water on the surface.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is especially interesting when looking for planets with potential reservoirs of water beyond our Solar System,&#8221; explained Jean-Loup Bertaux, co-author of the <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2018JA026136">paper on the new research</a> and former principal investigator at ESA, in an <a href="http://sci.esa.int/soho/61130-earth-atmosphere-stretches-out-to-the-moon-and-beyond/">official press release</a>.</p>
<h2>Empty Space</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, those extra hydrogen atoms won&#8217;t be particularly useful for future missions to the Moon.</p>
<p>&#8220;On Earth we would call it vacuum, so this extra source of hydrogen is not significant enough to facilitate space exploration,&#8221; said Igor Baliukin of Russia&#8217;s Space Research Institute and lead author of the paper.</p>
<p>But they could make future astronomical observations more accurate by allowing astronomers to take the hydrogen atoms and their associated ultraviolet wavelengths into account.</p>
<p>The revelation symbolizes a big win for the SOHO team. &#8220;This discovery highlights the value of data collected over 20 years ago and the exceptional performance of SOHO,&#8221; said Bernhard Fleck, SOHO project scientist at ESA.</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE: </strong><a href="http://sci.esa.int/soho/61130-earth-atmosphere-stretches-out-to-the-moon-and-beyond/">Earth&#8217;s atmosphere stretches out to the Moon — and beyond</a> [ESA]</p>
<p><em><strong>More on Earth&#8217;s atmosphere: <a href="https://futurism.com/esa-ion-thruster-breathes-air">The European Space Agency’s New Ion Thruster “Breathes” Air</a></strong></em></p>


Earth's geocorona extends up to 391,000 miles (630,000 km) away from Earth.

New study: Earth's atmosphere extends well beyond the Moon

My Geocorona

Data collected by NASA and ESA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory reveals that Earth's gaseous layer extends up to 391,000 miles away from Earth.

New Research: Earth’s Atmosphere Extends Well Beyond the Moon

"The Moon flies through Earth's atmosphere."

<h2>Distant Space Rocks</h2>
<p>The Kuiper Belt is a collection of space rocks beyond the outer reaches of Neptune, <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/watch-nasa-video-ultima-thule">like Ultima Thule</a>. Astronomers predict their age to be about as old as the Solar System itself.</p>
<p>Kuiper Belt objects are extremely difficult to observe because of that distance, even using the most expensive telescopes in the world. That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s extraordinary that a research team at the National Astronomical Observatory in Japan <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-01/nion-mip012619.php">just spotted one</a> — with a telescope that costs less than a fancy TV.</p>
<h2>Big Discovery, Tiny Budget</h2>
<p>The team <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-01/nion-mip012619.php">discovered</a> the 0.8 mile (1.3 km) wide object using a telescope that, as <em>Motherboard </em><a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/59xbg8/astronomers-discover-rare-kilometer-sized-object-in-outer-solar-system">pointed out</a>, costs about $3,000. They augmented its power with specialized cameras and an astrograph, which is an instrument for wide field astronomical surveys — and the DIY approach paid off: the team&#8217;s research was <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-018-0685-8.epdf">published in</a> the prestigious journal <em>Nature Astronomy</em> on Monday.</p>
<p>The team used a technique called &#8220;occultation,&#8221; which entails observing a large number of stars at the same time and noting every time a shadow passes in front of them by measuring the dimming of the star&#8217;s light. They monitored about 2000 stars for a duration of 60 hours and after analyzing the data, they found a light signature suggesting the existence of the new space object.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is a real victory for little projects. Our team had less than 0.3% of the budget of large international projects. We didn&#8217;t even have enough money to build a second dome to protect our second telescope!&#8221; team leader Ko Arimatsu from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan said in a <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-01/nion-mip012619.php">statement</a>. &#8220;Yet we still managed to make a discovery that is impossible for the big projects.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Secrets of the Solar System</h2>
<p>The discovery could confirm an important hypothesis about the formation of planets: tiny space rocks slowly grow through collecting cosmic dust grains into kilometer-sized objects before merging with other objects when they get to a certain size.</p>
<p>Despite the team&#8217;s minuscule budget, their discovery manages to bring us a lot closer to understanding the evolution of the early Solar System.</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE: </strong><a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-01/nion-mip012619.php">Missing link in planet evolution found</a> [<em>EurekaAlert!</em>]<strong><br />
</strong></p>
<p><em><strong>More on Kuiper Belt objects: <a href="https://futurism.com/nasas-recent-pictures-of-objects-in-the-kuiper-belt-just-broke-records">NASA&#8217;s Recent Pictures of Objects in the Kuiper Belt Just Broke Records</a></strong></em></p>


"Our team had less than 0.3% of the budget of large international projects."

Astronomers find rare, distant space object with $3,000 telescope

Kuiper Belt Objects

Despite "less than 0.3% of the budget of large international projects," a team of Japanese astronomers found a tiny object at the edge of our Solar System.

Astronomers Find Rare, Distant Space Object With $3,000 Telescope

"This is a real victory for little projects."

<h2>Disintegrating Planet</h2>
<p>About 800 light years away, a massive exoplanet is having a hard time keeping itself together. And we mean that literally — K2-22b has been crumbling into pieces since before astronomers <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1504.04379">first discovered</a> the Neptune-sized rocky planet back in 2015.</p>
<p>Scientists have since periodically tracked K2-22b&#8217;s decay to learn more about how and why some planets disintegrate as they orbit. Research <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/aae31b/meta">recently published</a> in <em>The Astronomical Journal </em>tracks the evolution of the planet&#8217;s transit around its star — one &#8220;year&#8221; on K2-22b is currently just nine hours — as it falls apart.</p>
<h2>One in a Thousand</h2>
<p>Of the <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/treasure-trove-planets-hiding-dust">roughly 3,800 exoplanets</a> confirmed to exist, K2-22b is one of just three that have begun to disintegrate.</p>
<p>Because planetary disintegration is such a rare occurrence, the astronomers watching K2-22b are hoping to learn as much as they can about how and why it&#8217;s happening before the distant planet reaches its inevitable end.</p>
<h2>Things Fall Apart</h2>
<p>Because they&#8217;ve found so few disintegrating exoplanets, astronomers are largely limited to observing what&#8217;s happening as they see it. This time, they found not only a comet-like trail of matter falling off the planet, but a trail of dust-like material in front of it as well.</p>
<p>But the scientists want to be able to learn more, and the research concludes that learning as much as they can through continuous observation of K2-22b would be a valuable endeavor — who knows when they&#8217;ll get another chance to watch a planet crumble apart.</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE:</strong> <a href="https://phys.org/news/2019-01-disintegrating-exoplanet-k2-22b.html">The Disintegrating Exoplanet K2-22b</a> [<em>Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Newsroom</em>]</p>
<p><strong><em>More on exoplanets:</em></strong> <strong><em><a href="https://futurism.com/scientists-just-discovered-the-second-closest-exoplanet-to-earth">Scientists Just Discovered the Second-Closest Exoplanet to Earth</a></em></strong></p>


Exoplanet K2-22b is crumbling apart, and astronomers want to know why.

Astronomers are watching a Neptune-sized exoplanet disintegrate

RIP Big Guy

Scientists published more data about an exoplanet named K2-22b, just one of three ever observed to be disintegrating in real time.

Astronomers Are Watching as a Neptune-Sized Exoplanet Disintegrates

K2-22b is one of just three exoplanets known to be actively crumbling apart.

<h2>Star Light, Star Bright</h2>
<p>A Japanese company called <a href="http://star-ale.com/en/">Astro Live Experiences</a> is about to launch a satellite that it will use to generate the first-ever artificial meteor shower.</p>
<p>The satellite is an experimental prototype that the company hopes will help it prepare for its first full &#8220;Sky Canvas&#8221; show near Hiroshima in 2020. It&#8217;s loaded with thousands of tiny pellets that will catch fire as they descend through the atmosphere, leaving long, glowing trails that resemble shooting stars, <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/first-artificial-meteor-shower-might-outshine-natural-shooting-stars/">according to <em>CNET</em></a>.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/231032391?app_id=122963" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" title="ALE_Astro Live Experiences" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<h2>First Star I See Tonight</h2>
<p>According to the company, each centimeter-wide pellet will combust as it re-enters the atmosphere. From the ground, the plan is that it&#8217;ll look like a shooting star that burns brighter and lasts longer than the real thing. Astro Live Experiences claims that the pellets will totally disintegrate, though <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/danvergano/ale-shooting-star-satellite-meteor#.acKV7YA88">scientists told <em>BuzzFeed News</em></a> early last year that there would be some risk of the pellets colliding with other satellites.</p>
<p>Risks aside, this prototype and next year&#8217;s Sky Canvas show demonstrate that performance art has breached the final frontier. Whether you&#8217;re a kid wishing on a star or a young lover enjoying a romantic evening, is there anything more beautiful and awe-inspiring than seeing a tech startup&#8217;s space garbage illuminating the night sky?</p>
<h2>I Wish I May, I Wish I Might</h2>
<p>&#8220;I hope that our man-made meteors will help reveal new discoveries in science, and that it will gather and entertain people under the night sky,&#8221; Astro Live Experiences CEO Lena Okajima <a href="http://star-ale.com/en/news/317/2019/01/04/">said in a recent press release</a>.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s unclear exactly how a Sky Canvas show will contribute to science, but we decided to fathom a guess.</p>
<p>Hypothesis: If a tech startup fills the sky with flammable garbage, <a href="https://futurism.com/meteor-showers-demand-rich-people">a bunch</a> of <a href="https://gizmodo.com/artificial-meteor-showers-are-the-atmospheric-spectacle-1831814048">tech blogs</a> will <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190102-the-plan-to-make-artificial-meteor-showers">groan in unison</a>.</p>
<p>Those results are good enough to publish.</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE:</strong> <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/first-artificial-meteor-shower-might-outshine-natural-shooting-stars/">First artificial meteor shower might outshine natural &#8216;shooting stars&#8217;</a> [<em>CNET</em>]</p>
<p><strong><em>More on Astro Live Experiences: <a href="https://futurism.com/meteor-showers-demand-rich-people">Guess What, Rich People: Meteor Showers on Demand Are a Terrible Idea</a></em></strong></p>
<p><em>Editor’s Note 1/17 at 5:37 PM ET: This article has been updated to when the satellite will launch.</em></p>


You call it "art," we call it "space garbage"

A startup is about to launch a satellite full of fake shooting stars

Killer Asteroid 2020

Tokyo-based company Astro Live Experiences just launched its experimental prototype satellite that it will use to create a fake meteor shower.

/Astronomy