In a first, two exoplanets to soon die

Two planets will be swallowed in a short time by the star they are orbiting. The planets - Kepler-56b and Kepler-56c - will be swallowed by their star in 130 million and 155 million years, respectively, scientists said.

"As far as we know, this is the first time two known exoplanets in a single system have a predicted time of death," said lead author Gongjie Li of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Massachusetts.

Kepler-56b orbits its host star once every 10.5 days, while Kepler-56c orbits every 21.4 days.

Both of them are much closer to their star than Mercury is to the sun. As a result, they will meet their fate much faster.

Li and colleagues calculated the evolution of both the star's size and the planets' orbits to predict when the planets will be destroyed.

Even before they vanish, the two planets will be subjected to immense heating from the steadily growing star.

Their atmospheres will begin to boil off, and the planets themselves will be stretched into egg shapes by stellar tides, the study noted.

"The Kepler-56 planetary system is also notable for being the first 'tilted' multi-planet system to be discovered," Li, who presented her research at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society recently, concluded.