In a dramatic cosmic find, MIT astronomers have discovered a planet located about 140 light-years from Earth that is rapidly breaking apart. A Hellish World in DecayThe newly discovered exoplanet orbits its star at a distance 20 times closer than Mercury is to our Sun. As it races around its star, the intense radiation is causing it to shed massive amounts of surface material—effectively evaporating away over time. Why This Discovery MattersThis rare observation offers a unique opportunity to study the final stages of a rocky planet’s life, shedding light on the evolution and death of close-in exoplanets. The scientists confirmed that the signal is of a tightly orbiting rocky planet that is trailing a long, comet-like tail of debris.