Location, Location, Location: Scientists Find Planet Being Slowly Vaporized By Heat Of Star

It would be just my luck. I find a nice planet near a warm balmy star and purchase a place as my retirement spot. Next thing I know, all of my real estate is being sucked into space in the ultimate depreciation disaster. That is what scientists caught recently (sans the retiree) when it found the first known case of such a planet vaporized by its nearby star and gradually being sucked away.

The star is KIC-12557548 with a temperature of 4200°C. That produces a temperature as high as 1800°C on the planet surface which is hot enough to melt and evaporate rocks. The result is that the planet is being reduced to dust in the form of pyroxene or aluminium oxide.
Dr Jon Jenkins from the SETI Institute and his colleagues made the discovery with NASA’s Kepler space telescope. They found a “long comet-like debris trail behind a disintegrating planet not much bigger than Mercury.”

While gas planets slowly evaporate, this is the first rocky planet to be found evaporating.

For my part, I am just interested in the cosmic property dispute. If my property is vaporized and sucked into space, do I lose all proprietary as well as planetary claim? The answer would seem to be yes. Unless you can exercise dominion and control over the dust, it would appear to be free for the capture.

As a requiem for this planet, I leave it with the following tribute:

Source: ABC