Astronomers have discovered an unusual exoplanet with a long "tail" of gas trailing behind it. As NASA details in a recent article about the discovery, the planet, dubbed WASP-69 b, is steadily shedding its atmosphere of hydrogen and helium particles, which are being shaped into a trail by the stellar winds coming its way. WASP-69 b is a hot Jupiter, which means it's a gas giant roughly the mass of Jupiter but orbits its host star in the Aquarius constellation some 164 light-years away at a much shorter distance, causing its surface temperatures to soar. The sheer amount of […]