Planet FOUND Orbiting `Puffed-Up Star.... That Will DESTROY Earth

by **J The Kidd** Wed Dec 03, 2008 4:07 pm

A planet outside of the solar system has been discovered orbiting a dying, puffed-up star called a red giant.

The finding could help astronomers learn more about the fate of our solar system.

The newly discovered exoplanet is nearly six times the mass of Jupiter
and orbits the red giant star HD 102272, which is located 1,200
light-years away in the constellation Leo. To date, about 20 red giants
are known to support planets.

The researchers suspect another world is orbiting farther out in the
system. If confirmed, the system would be the first red giant star
known to support more than one planet.

The new planet orbits closer than any other world to its red giant
parent, orbiting just 0.6 astronomical units (AU) from the star. The
researchers suggest this distance could be the limit, with no planets
venturing in closer to a red giant.

"When red-giant stars expand, they tend to eat up the nearby planets,"

The host star is currently about 10 times the size of the sun, but it
will eventually expand to up to 100 times the size of the sun.

Earth will likely be destroyed, but more distant — and currently
frozen — worlds such as Jupiter's frozen moon Europa will survive and
perhaps be bathed in sunlight as our star rapidly expands.

Europa "may become a very pleasant, nice ocean world," Wolszczan said.
"There would still be more than a billion years of time for life to
develop again somewhere else in the solar system.