Size comparison of WASP-12b (gray) with Jupiter.

[Orion1]

Size comparison of WASP-12b (gray) with Jupiter.

WASP-12 is a magnitude 11 yellow dwarf star located approximately 600 light-years away in the constellation Auriga. WASP-12 has a mass and radius similar to the Sun at 1.35 M_{\odot}.

WASP-12b is an extrasolar planet, discovered by the SuperWASP planetary transit survey orbiting the star WASP-12. Its discovery was announced on April 1, 2008. Due to its extremely close orbit to its star, its radius is 79% larger than Jupiter's and its mass 41% larger. The planet takes only a little over a day to orbit the star, in contrast to 365 days for the Earth to orbit the Sun. Its distance from the star is only 1/44 the Earth’s distance from the Sun with the eccentricity the same as Jupiter.

The planet is so close to WASP-12 that the star's tidal forces are distorting the planet into an egg shape and pulling away its atmosphere at a rate of about 10−7 MJ (about 189 million billion tonnes) per year. The so-called "tidal heating", and the proximity of the planet to its star, combine to bring the surface temperature to more than 2,500 K (2,200 °C).

On 20 May 2010, the Hubble Space Telescope spotted WASP-12b being consumed by its star. Despite scientists already being aware that stars can consume planets, this is the first time such an event has been spotted so clearly.

The Hubble space telescope has discovered a planet in our galaxy in the process of being devoured by the star that it orbits, according to a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The doomed planet, dubbed WASP-12b, has the highest known surface temperature of any planet in the Milky Way -- around 1,500 degrees Celsius (2,800 degrees Fahrenheit).

But it could be enveloped by its own parent star over the next ten million years, the paper's authors have concluded.

[PLAIN]http://d.yimg.com/a/p/afp/20100524/capt.photo_1274732261799-1-0.jpg
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Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WASP-12b"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WASP-12"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100524/ts_alt_afp/usscienceastronomy"

 

[ViewsofMars]

SAO/NASA ADS Astronomy Abstract Service:

Title: Day-side z'-band Emission and Eccentricity of WASP-12b
Authors: López-Morales, Mercedes; Coughlin, Jeffrey L.; Sing, David K.; Burrows, Adam; Apai, Dániel; Rogers, Justin C.; Spiegel, David S.; Adams, Elisabeth R.
Affiliation: AA(Carnegie Institution of Washington, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, 5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA ; Hubble Fellow. ; mercedes@dtm.ciw.edu), AB(Department of Astronomy, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA ; NSF Graduate Research Fellow.), AC(Astrophysics Group, School of Physics, University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter, Ex4 4QL, UK ), AD(Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Peyton Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA ), AE(Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA ), AF(Carnegie Institution of Washington, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, 5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA ; Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, 366 Bloomberg Center, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA ), AG(Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Peyton Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA ), AH(Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA )
Publication: The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 716, Issue 1, pp. L36-L40 (2010). (ApJL Homepage)
Publication Date: 06/2010
Origin: IOP
ApJ Keywords:
planetary systems, stars: individual: WASP-12, techniques: photometric
DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/716/1/L36
Bibliographic Code: 2010ApJ...716L..36L

Abstract
We report the detection of the eclipse of the very hot Jupiter WASP-12b via z'-band time-series photometry obtained with the 3.5 m Astrophysical Research Consortium telescope at Apache Point Observatory. We measure a decrease in flux of 0.082% ± 0.015% during the passage of the planet behind the star. That planetary flux is equally well reproduced by atmospheric models with and without extra absorbers, and blackbody models with f >= 0.585 ± 0.080. It is therefore necessary to measure the planet at other wavelengths to further constrain its atmospheric properties. The eclipse appears centered at phase phi = 0.5100+0.0072 –0.0061, consistent with an orbital eccentricity of |ecos ω| = 0.016+0.011 –0.009 (see note at the end of Section 4). If the orbit of the planet is indeed eccentric, the large radius of WASP-12b can be explained by tidal heating.

Based on observations collected with the Apache Point Observatory 3.5 m telescope, which is owned and operated by the Astrophysical Research Consortium (ARC).
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010ApJ...716L..36L