Death by clinginess – exoplanet HIP 67522 b may be triggering its own fiery demise

There’s a planet out there that’s so clingy to its host star it’s whipping up dangerous flares of radiation and getting blasted in return.

HIP 67522 b is a puffy, Jupiter-sized planet that orbits its youthful star in just seven days – a dangerously close orbit by planetary standards.

The star itself is only 17 million years old, a baby in cosmic terms, and spins energetically, generating a powerful magnetic field.

Researchers at the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON) figured out that this planet might be stirring up its star’s energy in shocking ways that have never been definitively observed before.

“We hadn’t seen any systems like HIP 67522 before; when the planet was found, it was the youngest planet known to be orbiting its host star in less than 10 days,” said researcher Ekaterina Ilin, lead on the project.

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The researchers believe the planet is transferring energy along the star’s magnetic field lines, causing them to “snap” and unleash powerful flares, similar to snapping a cosmic whip.

ESA’s Cheops satellite was built to quietly study exoplanet atmospheres, like watching clouds drift by on alien worlds, not to catch explosions in the act.

But its incredible precision meant it accidentally became the perfect tool for observing stellar flares, too, especially during the exact moments when HIP 67522 b passed in front of its host star.

Over time, researchers spotted 15 flares, most of them bizarrely timed to the planet’s transits, like the star was reacting to the planet’s presence.

These flares weren’t random either. They appeared to follow a rhythm, flaring when the planet passed by, suggesting a strange magnetic interaction at play.

“It’s really beautiful to see the mission contributing to this and other results that go so far beyond what it was envisioned to do,” shared Maximillian Günther, Cheops project scientist at ESA.

HIP 67522 b isn’t built for battle – it’s one of the puffiest, fluffiest gas giants we’ve ever found, with a density closer to cotton candy than Jupiter.

If the onslaught continues, scientists believe this Jupiter-sized balloon could deflate into a much smaller Neptune-like planet in under 100 million years.

For comparison, Earth is 4.5 billion years old – so this planet’s lifespan is barely a warm-up act in cosmic terms.