The Only Planet Ever Caught Falling Into Its Star

There's a planet out there spiraling into its own star — and it's the only one we've ever caught in the act.

WASP-12b orbits its star in just 26 hours. For comparison, Mercury — our Sun's closest planet — takes 88 days. This world is jammed so close its star fills a third of its sky.

WASP-12b is a Hot Jupiter — a gas giant that migrated inward and got trapped in a furnace. The star's gravity has stretched it into an egg shape and inflated its atmosphere to nearly twice the width of Jupiter — so bloated it's spilling past the planet's Roche lobe, bleeding a stream of superheated gas toward the star. The day side hits 2,900 Kelvin. But the real horror is slower: its orbit is decaying. Every year, WASP-12b falls a little closer — and it can't climb back out.

Here's what's wild: WASP-12b is the first planet we've ever confirmed physically falling into its star. It has maybe 3 million years left — cosmic tomorrow. We didn't find a planet orbiting a star. We found one mid-swallow.

Follow The Cosmic Vault — the universe is stranger than you think.