Astronomers have discovered for the first time a planet that lost its entire atmosphere after an extremely large meteorite impact. A team led by researchers at MIT has discovered evidence of a massive planetary collision in a nearby star system known as HD 17255. In that star system, researchers believe a planet has similar in size to Earth and a smaller impactor may have last collided 200,000 years ago. As a result of this collision, the planet’s atmosphere almost disappeared. Although this type of collision is quite frequent and common in the Solar System, it is rarely directly observed. In our solar system, collisions of this kind have occurred, such as the Moon created in the collision between the Earth and another primordial body.
HD 17255 is close to our Solar System at only about 95 light-years from Earth. The star at its center is called HD 172555 and it is about 23 million years old. The researchers believe that the star’s dust contains traces of this collision.
Astronomers have observed further evidence of a massive collision around the star, and determined that the collision could have occurred between a terrestrial planet approximately the size of Earth and a planet. smaller impactors at least 200,000 years ago. The collision is said to have occurred at more than 35,405 km/h.
One of the most important discoveries in the study was the enormous impact of the collision that blew away part of that planet’s atmosphere. That event would explain why there is gas and dust orbiting the star. This is the first time that scientists have detected the atmosphere of a planet that has disappeared due to the impact of the collision, said lead author of the study Tajana Schneiderman.
