This graphic contains an image (left) and illustration (right) of a nearby star, named CoRoT-2a, and an orbiting planet known as CoRoT-2b. The image contains X-rays from Chandra (purple) of CoRoT-2a along with optical and infrared data of the field of view in which it is found. CoRoT-2b, which is not seen in this image, orbits extremely closely to the star. In fact, the separation between the star and planet is only about 3 percent of the distance between the Earth and the Sun. The Chandra data indicate that the planet is being blasted by X-rays with such intensity that some 5 million tons o
This graphic contains an image (left) and illustration (right) of a nearby star, named CoRoT-2a, and an orbiting planet known as CoRoT-2b. The image contains X-rays from Chandra (purple) of CoRoT-2a along with optical and infrared data of the field of view in which it is found. CoRoT-2b, which is not seen in this image, orbits extremely closely to the star. In fact, the separation between the star and planet is only about 3 percent of the distance between the Earth and the Sun. The Chandra data indicate that the planet is being blasted by X-rays with such intensity that some 5 million tons of material are being eroded from the planet every second. COROT-2b loses mass
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Photo credit: © NASA Image Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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Keywords: astronomy, copy, corot-2a, editorial, nasa, news, night, photograph, photography, rocket, sky, space, stock
