A gas giant named NGTS-10b, similar to Jupiter in its properties, has been discovered by astronomers in a planetary system some 1,060 light-years away. But there is a trick - the planet is located so close to its star that it makes a full rotation around it for in just 18.4 hours, which essentially means that one year on this planet is faster than one day on the Earth.
This means the exoplant has the shortest orbital period of all the gas giants spotted so far. However, according to the scientific team led by James McCormac of the University of Warwick, this is bad news for NGTS-10b, as it will inevitably draw closer to the star which, will effectively lead to the total annihilation of the planet.
The celestial body was spotted with the Next-Generation Transit Survey, a ground-based robotic search for exoplanets, located in Paranal, Chile.
NGTS-10b is the seventh of such exoplanets that are orbiting at such dangerous proximity to a sun.
The planet is just over 1.2 times the size of Jupiter, and just over 2.1 times its mass.
