Scientists Propose a New Kind of Planet: A Smashed Up Torus of Hot Vaporized Rock

"We looked at the statistics of giant impacts, and we found that they can form a completely new structure." - Professor Sarah Stewart, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of California, Davis.

"The main issue with looking for synestias around other stars is that they don't last a long time. These are transient, evolving objects that are made during planet formation." - Professor Sarah Stewart, UC Davis.

"These are transient, evolving objects that are made during planet formation." - Professor Sarah Stewart, UC Davis