Hubble sees an evaporating world

Now this is cool. The Hubble Space Telescope has observed a planet that is literally being ripped apart because it is orbiting too close to its star. The pictures on the BBC website are little more than artist renderings, but the scientists at the Geneva Laboratory say that the hydrogen atmosphere of the planet is being blown off the planet by starlight. Kinda makes you wonder about the amounts that are actually being blown off, and whether or not Mercury received the same treatment from our own Sun.