A youthful planet has been exhibiting unpredictable alterations in its atmosphere during each revolution around its parent star.
"We've never seen atmospheric escape go from completely not detectable to very detectable over such a short period when a planet passes in front of its star. We were really expecting something very predictable, repeatable. But it turned out to be weird.
“One possible explanation for the missing hydrogen during one of the planet's transits is that a powerful stellar flare, seen seven hours prior, may have photoionized the escaping hydrogen to the point where it became transparent to light, and so was not detectable,” explained the release. However, young red dwarfs are extremely eruptive, frequently bombarding any planets orbiting close to the star.
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