Astronomers have spotted a distant world "shedding" its atmosphere into space in real time, creating a giant companion cloud of gas that travels ahead of the planet as it orbits its star.
Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have revealed an unprecedented view of helium gas evaporating from a distant, giant exoplanet called WASP-107b. The escaping gas stretches across a distance that's nearly 10 times the planet's radius and in fact precedes the planet along its path around its parent star. This discovery reveals new clues about how the atmospheres of giant planets like WASP-107b can slowly evaporate under intense radiation from their host star, according to a statement.
