A Solar System Sized 'Deep Fryer' Is Searing the Atmosphere of a Giant Planet

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Deep in space, a planet is being cooked from the inside out by its own star.

[00:00:04]Meet WASP-12b, a gas giant so close to its sun that it orbits in just one Earth day. The gravity here is so violent, it has stretched the planet into the shape of an egg, literally pulling the atmosphere away to form a glowing tail of superheated gas.

[00:00:20]Even stranger, this world is pitch black, absorbing 94% of the light that hits it, making it one of the darkest places in the universe.

[00:00:29]Astronomers believe it has less than 10 million years left before it is completely consumed, disappearing forever into the fires of its parent star.