Astronomers discovered a planet that orbits its star so closely that its surface is being scorched into magma and vaporizing into space.

MIT astronomers have discovered a planet some 140 light-years from Earth that is rapidly crumbling to pieces. The disintegrating world is about the mass of Mercury, although it circles about 20 times closer to its star than Mercury does to the sun,

At such close proximity to its star, the planet is likely covered in magma boiling off into space. As the roasting planet whizzes around its star, it is shedding an enormous amount of surface minerals and effectively evaporating away, leaving a debris tail behind it.