Astronomers have spotted a small rocky planet that orbits perilously close to its host star disintegrating as its surface is vaporized by stellar heat, trailed by a comet-like tail of mineral dust up to about 5.

Astronomers have detected a small planet that is literally falling to pieces. The object, coined BD +05 4868 Ab, orbits a star in the constellation Pegasus approximately 140 light years from Earth. Each 30.

MIT astronomers have discovered a planet some 140 light-years from Earth that is rapidly crumbling to pieces. The disintegrating world is about the mass of Mercury, although it circles about 20 times