The Hubble telescope showed how a star destroys the planet's atmosphere

The Hubble telescope recorded the process of destruction of the planet's atmosphere as a result of energy emissions from its star. bright photo shared NASA agency.

This happens in the AU Microscopii system, located just 32 light years from Earth. This star is less than 100 million years old, which is only a fraction of the age of our Sun (4.6 billion). Under the strong influence of its thermonuclear flares was the exoplanet AU Mic b - a gas world the size of Neptune.

The first time "Hubble" captured this object a year and a half ago, but then astronomers did not notice anything unusual. But the new picture surprised them a lot: it showed clearly visible hydrogen plumes behind and in front of the planet, which means the sudden evaporation of a significant part of the atmosphere.

AU Microscopii is a red dwarf. They are known to be smaller and colder than the Sun, but more active thermonuclear reactions occur in their depths, generating flares. And they happen much more often than in sun-like stars. As it has now become clear, this adversely affects the planets closest to them - AU Mic b is only 10 million kilometers away (only a tenth of the distance between Mercury and the Sun).

Now astronomers want to find out if planets can survive in such conditions and what happens to them when they eventually lose their atmosphere completely.