The planet WASP-18b, which is ten times the size of Jupiter, exceedingly hot and in extremely close proximty to its parent star, is going to plunge into that same parent star in about a million years. What is really intriguing though is not only is this the only planet that will do this in a million years, but scientists were astonished that they even discovered it.
According to astronomers the odds that they observed this planet "on the cusp of oblivion is about 1 in 1,000."
A question that was bustling in my mind after reading this article was, "How will studying the doom of this planet have any impact with regards to understanding our own?" I often hear about these new discoveries and how amazing they are but how do they really benefit us. This may sound negative, but I do not see the point in these discoveries if they are not going to benefit the human existence in some way. I do not want to take away from the fact that astronomy is an amazing science but what is the purpose behind it.
Below is the link to the article:
.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/science/space/01planet.html?ref=science
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