Star Blasts Planet with X-rays

Astronomers have found hundreds of planets orbiting stars other than our Sun. New Chandra observations of one planet reveals a fairly dire situation. The Chandra data provide evidence that the star, known as CoRoT-2a, is blasting the extremely close planet with powerful X-rays. These X-rays are a hundred thousand times more intense than those that the Earth receives from the Sun. Astronomers estimate that this high-energy radiation is evaporating about 5 million tons of matter every second from the planet. Luckily, Earth is not in this same situation.