Terrifying new Earth-sized planet found with deadly secret that would instantly kill anyone visiting
NIGHTMARE WORLD Terrifying new Earth-sized planet found with deadly secret that would instantly kill anyone visiting
A NEW Earth-sized planet has been discovered in a faraway constellation - and it would kill any astronaut who dare travel there.
Some 117.4 light-years away from Earth, scientists have stumbled across a nightmarish alien world where the planet's surface is likely molten.
5
The surface of molten exoplanet
Credit: Alamy
5
An artist's impression of a molten exoplanet
Credit: Alamy
The planet, dubbed TOI-2431, orbits quite close to its nearest star over a very short period, resulting in a high surface temperature.
Unlike Earth, which has an orbital period of 365 days, TOI-2431 orbits its star in only 5.4 hours - making it one of the shortest period exoplanets ever discovered.
The alien world, located in constellation Cetus, is thought to have a surface temperature of about 1,700C (3092F).
Anything that lands there would be immediately incinerated.
The international team of astronomers, led by Kaya Han Taş of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, detected the new exoplanet orbiting a nearby star using Nasa's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).
5
Nasa's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
Credit: Nasa
"We have confirmed the ultra-short period planet TOI-2431 b using a combination of photometric transit data from TESS, precise radial velocity observations with the NEID and HPF spectrographs, and ground-based speckle imaging with the NESSI instrument," researchers wrote in the new research paper.
The Nasa tool monitors about 200,000 bright stars near Earth, scanning for hidden planets that might cause any blips of light as they pass their star.
Just last week, researchers revealed they used TESS to follow a repetitive flicker of starlight to a new 'Super Earth' 154 light-years away.
Since its launch in April 2018, the satellite has identified more than 7,600 possible exoplanets - which are nicknamed TESS Objects of Interest, or TOI.
Exactly 638 of these have been confirmed as alien worlds so far.
Best-ever sign of ALIEN life found on distant planet as scientists '99.7% sure of astounding biological activity signal'
The planet's host star is only about two-thirds the size and mass of our Sun, and appears to be pulling the planet towards a fiery death.
Researchers estimated that the planet has a tidal decay timescale of about 31 million years - which is fairly short in the grand schemes of the universe.
Tidal decay causes a planet's orbit to gradually shrink and spiral towards its host star - eventually leading to its destruction.
The 2billion-year-old host star, which researchers believe is roughly double the temperature of its nearby planet, will eventually collide with the planet.
Researchers hope they can secure time with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to study TOI-2431 b more closely.
Doing so could shed more light on the planet's surface composition, and may answer the question of whether or not it has an atmosphere.
The $10 billion telescope discovered its first-ever exoplanet just last month, but has been used to analyse others on its journey through space.
5
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
Credit: Alamy
5
An artist's impression of a molten exoplanet
Credit: Alamy
All you need to know about planets in our solar system
Our solar system is made up of nine planets with Earth the third closest to the Sun. But each planet has its own quirks, so find out more about them all... How old is Earth? Plus other facts on our planet
How many moons does Mercury have?
What colour is Venus?
How far away is Mars to Earth? And other facts on the red planet
How big is Jupiter?
How many moons does Saturn have?
Does Uranus have rings?
How many moons does Neptune have?
How big is Pluto?
How hot is the Sun?
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
13 minutes ago
- The Independent
Earth is spinning faster and is about to see one of its shortest days ever
The Earth is spinning at its fastest rate since records began, and astronomers predict that 5 August will be one of the shortest days ever measured. New estimates released this month suggest that the first Tuesday of August will be around 1.25 milliseconds shorter than it should be. The average rotation of our planet is 24 hours, or 86,400 seconds, however there are several variables that cause Earth to spin faster or slower. The Moon's gravitational influence on Earth typically causes it to slow time over time and for days to lengthen. There is no conclusive reason for why Earth's rotation is accelerating, though a 2024 study suggested that melting polar ice caps and rising sea levels could be influencing it. The shortest day ever recorded was on 5 July, 2024, measuring 1.66 milliseconds shorter, with recent years seeing the rotation speeding up. Scientists have proposed a negative leap second to compensate for the lost time, meaning all of the world's clocks will need to be adjusted. 'This is an unprecedented situation and a big deal,' said geophysicist Duncan Agnew from the University of California, who wrote about the issue in a paper published in the journal Nature last year. 'It's not a huge change in the Earth's rotation that's going to lead to some catastrophe or anything, but it is something notable. It's yet another indication that we're in a very unusual time.' There have been 27 leap seconds added to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) since 1972, when the present form of the time standard was adopted, in order to match atomic time to astronomical time. This would be the first time that a second has been subtracted, and it is not clear how current computing infrastructure would cope with the shift. Patrizia Tavella from the Time Department at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, wrote in an accompanying article to the Nature paper that any potential risks should be assessed before a negative leap second is applied. 'A negative leap second has never been added or tested,' she said, 'so the problems it could create are without precedent.'
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Earth's underground network of fungi needs urgent protection, say researchers
The underground network of fungi that underpins the planet's ecosystems needs urgent conservation action by politicians, a research organisation has said. Scientists from the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (Spun) have created the first high-resolution biodiversity maps of Earth's underground mycorrhizal fungal ecosystems. The research, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, found that 90% of the biodiverse hotspots of mycorrhizal fungi were in unprotected ecosystems. Loss of the ecosystems could lead to reductions in carbon drawdown, crop productivity and ecosystem resilience to climate extremes. Mycorrhizal fungi have 'remained in the dark, despite the extraordinary ways they sustain life on land', said Dr Toby Kiers, the executive director of Spun. 'They cycle nutrients, store carbon, support plant health, and make soil. When we disrupt these critical ecosystem engineers, forest regeneration slows, crops fail and biodiversity above ground begins to unravel … 450m years ago, there were no plants on Earth and it was because of the mycorrhizal fungal network that plants colonised the planet and began supporting human life. 'If we have a healthy fungal network, then we will have greater agricultural productivity, bigger and beautiful flowers, and can protect plants against pathogens.' Mycorrhizal fungi are found on the roots of plants and help regulate Earth's climate and ecosystems. Its underground networks provide plants with essential nutrients, while drawing more than 13bn tonnes of carbon dioxide a year into soils – equivalent to roughly one-third of global emissions from fossil fuels. Spun launched the initiative in 2021 alongside organisations including GlobalFungi, Fungi Foundation, the Global Soil Mycobiome consortium and researchers from around the world to map out the under-researched network of mycorrhizal fungal. Using machine-learning techniques on a dataset containing more than 2.8bn fungal samples from 130 countries, scientists were able to predict mycorrhizal diversity at a 1km2 scale across the planet. They discovered that only 9.5% of these fungal biodiversity hotspots fell within existing protected areas, revealing huge conservation gaps. The coast of Ghana was found to be a global hotspot for fungi, but with the country's coastline eroding at a rate of 2 metres a year, scientists fear this crucial biodiversity will be washed into the sea. This research marks the first large-scale scientific application of the global mapping initiative, which 'are more than scientific tools – they can help guide the future of conservation', said the study's lead author, Dr Michael Van Nuland. 'Given the impact of these fungal symbioses on the health and functioning of Earth's ecosystems, continuing to ignore them could be a hugely missed opportunity.' Nuland said the fungi respond negatively to human stressors, and without addressing the possible loss of these vital fungus, we could lose our ability to develop novel natural climate solutions. Land use is a significant cause of mycorrhizal fungal degradation, and it is 'frustrating that no action has been taken to prioritise conservation of it', said Kiers. 'The fungi is needed for agricultural productivity and human health.' Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion These fungal ecosystems were largely invisible in law and policy, said César Rodríguez-Garavito, a professor of law and the faculty director of the More-Than-Human Life (Moth) programme at NYU's School of Law. '[The data is] incredibly important in strengthening law and policy on climate change and biodiversity loss across all of Earth's underground ecosystems.' The findings are accessible through Spun's underground atlas interactive tool for conservation groups, researchers and policymakers to identify hotspots that require intervention. With more than 400 scientists and 96 underground explorers from 79 countries, Spun's international team is sampling the Earth's most hard-to-access, remote underground ecosystems including in Mongolia, Bhutan, Pakistan, and Ukraine. Spun is seeking new collaborators and funding to scale its mycorrhizal fungal maps, which cover only 0.001% of the Earth's surface. The expansion of its fungal maps would guide decision-makers to start leveraging mycorrhizal systems. The preservation and protection of mycorrhizal fungi could help to solve some of the world's greatest challenges – biodiversity decline, climate change, and declining food productivity, said Dr Rebecca Shaw, the chief scientist at the World Wide Fund for Nature, who added that it had a direct benefit to people.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Enormous asteroid bigger than a 15-story building headed toward Earth in just DAYS
An asteroid the size of the Leaning Tower of Pisa has been spotted just days before it screams past Earth in the latest near-miss astronomers have tracked. NASA has announced that asteroid 2025 OW is expected to pass within 393,000 miles of Earth on Monday, July 28. It's actually one of five asteroids NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) making a close pass by Earth over the next week. Two other asteroids, both between 100 and 200 feet long, are projected to miss Earth by more than a million miles on Thursday. Another small asteroid is expected to pass our planet on Saturday. However, 2025 OW is the largest of this ominous group and will also come much closer to striking the planet on Monday. The space rock has been measured to be approximately 210 feet long, making it comparable to a 15-story building or a large airplane. Its projected distance of 393,000 miles would put it just beyond the moon, which orbits Earth 239,000 miles away. While NASA has said that 2025 OW poses no risk at this time, they noted asteroids of this size could cause minor structural damage or shatter windows if it were to enter the atmosphere over a populated area. Astronomers categorize 2025 OW as a small to medium-sized asteroid, meaning it's not a 'planet-killer' which would cause an extinction-level event on Earth. This type of asteroid generally explodes in the atmosphere and doesn't reach the Earth's surface due to the intense frictional heating and pressure placed on the rock as it enters at high speeds. Scientists said 2025 OW is traveling at about 47,000 miles per hour, which is about an average speed for a near-Earth asteroid (NEA). For comparison, the 500-foot asteroid 2024 MK was traveling at roughly 34,000 mph when it came within 184,000 miles of Earth last July. Meanwhile, the worryingly large, 1,100-foot 99942 Apophis is traveling at 67,000 mph and is expected to come within 20,000 miles of Earth on April 13, 2029. At just 210 feet in length, it won't be visible with the naked eye or through binoculars when it reaches its closest point from the Earth. When it comes to tracking potentially dangerous asteroids, NASA's calculations are typically right on the money, meaning a major error that brings 2025 OW on a collision course with us unlikely. NASA JPL's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) uses ground-based telescopes and planetary radar systems like the Goldstone Solar System Radar to detect and track asteroids. These systems measure an asteroid's position, velocity, and brightness to determine its orbit and size. While NASA is staying on top of these smaller asteroids in view, scientists have recently raised alarm about dangerous objects coming at our planet from our stellar 'blind side.' A recent study warned that Venus blocks out our view of many near-Earth asteroids - large space rocks that cross or come near Earth's orbit - setting up the potential for a devastating impact no one sees coming. Researchers from Brazil, France, and Italy found that several asteroids in sync with Venus's orbit are extremely hard to spot because they're often hidden by the sun's glare. Three in particular, 2020 SB, 524522, and 2020 CL1, have orbits that take these asteroids dangerously close to Earth. The three asteroids flying along with Venus measure between 330 and 1,300 feet in diameter, making each one capable of leveling entire cities and setting off massive fires and tsunamis.
