A giant, boiling, shrinking planet has a tail stretching 350,000 miles into space, astronomers discover

• Astronomers have observed a shrinking, Jupiter-sized planet with a comet-like tail in its wake.
• The planet orbits so closely to its host star that its atmosphere is boiling and shedding away.
• Scientists say studying WASP-69b can teach us about how planets and stars evolve over time.

Astronomers have nabbed a rare opportunity to watch a planet shrink in real-time.

The Jupiter-sized planet, located 160 light years away, is orbiting its host star so closely that the star is boiling the planet's atmosphere.