Common · One of 400

GJ 436b

“This warm Neptune trails a comet-like hydrogen tail fifty times the size of his star — a gentle giant who is literally coming apart, and apologizes for the mess.”

A Storm world of Court of Storms

3 known connections · an open question

The living story

The story so far

He was supposed to be an ordinary warm Neptune around an ordinary red dwarf. Then Hubble looked closer and found the Behemoth — a tail so vast it eclipses his own star. He has been apologizing for the inconvenience ever since.

Happening now

The tail keeps growing, and he keeps tidying it, which is like bailing the ocean with a teacup. Neptune has taken him under a wing and pretends it is mentorship. It is actually the older brother watching the younger one dissolve, and not knowing what to say.

What may come

Astronomers say he has lost a tenth of his sky already, back when his star was young and angry. If the Primordial Suns converge, he hopes to borrow some of their gravity to hold himself together. It is a small hope, and he holds it the way he holds everything now: loosely.