Another new theoretical class of planets

[ajtribick]

What happens when you take a gas giant, put it in a really close torch orbit around its star and leave to evaporate?

If the planet is close enough to its star, it might eventually expose the solid core, creating a new class of planet called "Chthonian planets"

Article

[eburacum45]

Chthonian planets; hellish indeed.
The rocky core of a jupiter sized planet could be (WAG) 10x the mass of the Earth; expose that and you would have a high gravity, red hot rocky world, probably tidally locked to the star.

There would be lots of intermediate stages too- how about a water rich Steam-world?

I see that the estimate for mass loss by HD209458b is only 1 - 7% over 10^9 years;
despite having a gaseous tail like the biggest comet in the universe, it doesn't seem to have lost much mass, if Hebrard et al are right.

[marc]

Ever read the Integral Trees by Larry Niven?

Life is supported in a gaseous ring around a white dwarf.