Distorted exoplanet has the shape of a rugby ball

One year on planet WASP 103-b lasts less than one Earth day. This gives the huge planet a very peculiar shape.

In the constellation Hercules orbits the planet WASP-103b very close to its parent star in less than a day. As a result, the tidal forces on the exoplanet are extremely strong – deforming it into a rugby ball.

These An international research team including the Universities of Bern and Geneva made the discovery with the help of the European space telescope Cheops. It is the first time that such a deformation could be detected in an exoplanet, it said in a message on Tuesday .

Larger than Jupiter

The mass and radius of Planets WASP-103b are about one and a half times the size of Jupiter’s in our solar system. The exoplanet orbits its star, which is about 200 degrees hotter and 1.7 times larger than the Sun, in just 22 hours. The orbit is almost fifty times narrower than that of the earth around the sun. These orbital properties mean that the ups and downs caused by tides are extreme: the forces tug at the planet so severely that its appearance resembles a rugby ball.

The in The results published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics not only allow conclusions to be drawn about the bizarre shape of the planet, but also allow a glimpse into its interior. Because based on the measurements, the researchers also gave an estimate for the so-called “Love number“. .

Der innere Aufbau des Rugbyball-förmigen Exoplaneten WASP 103-b

The internal structure of the rugby ball-shaped exoplanet WASP 103-b

© ESA

Internal resemblance to gas giants

Astrophysicists can use this parameter to narrow down how an exoplanet might be constructed. According to this, the Love number of WASP-103b is comparable to that of Jupiter, which indicates a similar internal structure despite the larger radius and the stronger solar radiation.

The determined Love number is however still subject to a great deal of uncertainty. The team therefore hopes that observations made with the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope will narrow the value even further. According to the researchers, this would allow an unprecedented look inside this hot Jupiter and help to better understand such systems of extremes.

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