There is a strange subset of exoplanets out there in the wider universe. Hot Jupiters are hugging so close to their host stars that they're not just intensely hot, but also likely warped by the forces of nature.
Astronomers have detected the warped shape of a hot Jupiter for the first time. This one is pulled out of shape and looks like a rugby ball.
This achievement could help us understand how these exoplanets come to be in such extreme circles.
"It's amazing that CHEOPS was able to reveal this tiny deformation," says astronomer Jacques Laskar of Paris Observatory, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres in France.
This is the first time such analysis has been done, and we hope that observing over a longer time interval will strengthen this observation and lead to better knowledge of the planet's internal structure.
TheESA
The star WASP-103 is some 1,800 light-years away. It's a textbook hot Jupiter. These exoplanets are gas giants like Jupiter, but unlike Jupiter, they are very close to their host stars and have less than 10 days of orbital time. This makes them hot.
Hot Jupiters shouldn't exist according to current models. A gas giant can't form close to their star because of the gravity, radiation, and stellar winds.
Over 300 could be hot Jupiters, as nearly 5,000 confirmed exoplanets have been discovered to date. They form farther out in their planetary systems, then migrate towards the star. They can tell us a lot about the interactions between a planet and a star, so they are very interesting to study.
WASP-103b was first detected in 2015. It's twice the size of Jupiter and 1.5 times the mass, and it goes around once a day. It's around 20 times hotter than Jupiter.
We can't measure WASP-103b directly. The light from its star is much brighter than the rest. We can measure its transits. This is when the exoplanet passes between us and the star, causing minute changes in the starlight, and a faint dip when the exoplanet passes in front of the star.
A phase light curve. TheESA
The European Space Agency's CHEOPS is designed to detect these light curves. Multiple transits for WASP-103 allowed for the calculation of how the exoplanet's mass is distributed internally, and a set of parameters known as Love numbers.
This gives clues as to the exoplanet's composition. The researchers explain that the resistance of a material depends on what it's made of.
Earth's oceans change in response to the moon's pull, but the continents don't. It's possible to see what a planet is made of, whether it's a solid, liquid, or gas.
WASP-103b has a similar structure and composition as Jupiter. It is a bit more tenuous. Its mass is 1.5 times that of Jupiter. This suggests that the exoplanet is being inflated by the heat of the star.
If we can confirm the details of its internal structure with future observations, we could better understand what makes it so inflated. Susana Barros of the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences and University of Porto in Portugal says that knowing the size of the core of the exoplanet will be important to understand how it formed.
Astronomers will be able to figure this out with more observations. As Jupiters spiral in closer to their stars, their orbital periods are growing shorter. According to the observations, WASP-103b's orbital period seems to be growing longer.
It's not possible to say what's causing this. There are two possibilities, one is that another body is disrupting the orbit, and the other is that the orbit is eccentric.
It is1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556 Further study of the star and its strange exoplanet could help resolve the problem.
Future observations with the James Webb Space Telescope can help to better constrain the Love number of WASP-103b and gain an unprecedented view of the interior of this hot Jupiter.
This could help us understand these systems better.
The research has been published.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
