If a planet has an atmosphere, some are likely to leak out faster than others. And astronomers have just found a hum: the atmosphere is so loose it explodes in huge jets. The exoplanet responsible for this activity is HAT-P-32b, a gas giant about 1.8 times the radius of Jupiter and about 923 light-years away. It emits enough gas to form two tails that together span a distance of 53 times the radius of the exoplanet, Sciencealert.com reported.

These tails are among the largest structures we’ve ever found associated with an exoplanet, according to a team led by astrophysicist Zhoujian Zhang of the University of California, Santa Cruz.

“It’s fascinating to see how massive the elongated tails are compared to the size of the planet and its host star,” says Zhang, who led the discovery at the University of Texas at Austin. “Other planets may also have large source atmospheres waiting to be discovered through similar tracking.”

It is not unexpected for the HAT-P-32b to lose its atmosphere. This fluffy, low-density world is only 10 percent the size of Jupiter, orbiting its star very closely in just 2.15 days. Very close to its star, which is slightly larger and hotter than the Sun, the exoplanet heats up to temperatures of about 1,836 Kelvin (2,845 Fahrenheit, 1,562 Celsius).

It’s the heat that makes the HAT-P-32b so fluffy, but it’s also what steals its atmosphere. Previous observations recorded this effect in action, but failed to capture the true extent of the atmospheric destruction caused by the star.

This is because we are studying HAT-P-32b through transits as the exoplanet rotates between us and its star. This causes the star’s light to fluctuate slightly regularly and dim when an exoplanet blocks some of its light.

But something interesting happens when an exoplanet with an atmosphere passes in front of its star. Some of this star’s light passes through the atmosphere, causing changes in the spectrum as some wavelengths are absorbed and re-emitted by elements and compounds in the gas. They can be isolated and traced back to the substances that caused them, such as chemical fingerprints.

HAT-P-32b’s leaky atmosphere was revealed when, during observations of these transitions, scientists noticed large amounts of alpha hydrogen and helium. We didn’t know the exact size of the leak as they only looked at migration data.