Scientists Finally Get a Good Look at a Disintegrating Exoplanet

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By Javier Barbuzano, Eos/AGU. 

Excerpt: The James Webb Space Telescope offers astronomers a rare glimpse into the chemical composition of a rocky planet’s interior—and the results are “very surprising.” ...disintegrating planet, K2-22b, ...Discovered in 2015, ...orbits a small star 787 light-years away, completing one orbit every 9 hours. ...The spectroscopic results are “very surprising,” said University of Leeds astronomer Richard Booth, who wasn’t involved with the study. “We expected to see a composition akin to Earth’s mantle with minerals like magnesium silicate, and they see hints of that,” Booth said. “You just wouldn’t expect any icy material surviving at these temperatures.”.... 

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