User:Exoplanet Expert/WASP-12b
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
WASP-12b is an extrasolar planet orbiting the star WASP-12, discovered by the SuperWASP planetary transit survey. Its discovery was announced on April 1, 2008.[1] Due to its extremely close orbit to its star, it has one of the lowest densities for exoplanets ('inflated' by the flux of energy from the star). 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 (approximately 2,115,000 miles) is only 1/44 the Earth’s distance from the Sun, with an eccentricity the same as Jupiter's. On 3 December 2013, scientists working with the Hubble Space Telescope reported detecting water in the atmosphere of the exoplanet.[2][3]
![]() Size comparison of WASP-12b (right) with Jupiter | |
Discovery | |
---|---|
Discovery site | SAAO |
Transit | |
Orbital characteristics | |
Aphelion | 15,000,000 mi |
Perihelion | 2,000,000 mi |
Periastron | 0.0218 |
0.0229 ± 0.0008 | |
Eccentricity | 0.049 ± 0.015 |
1.091423 ± 3e-6 | |
Inclination | 83.1+1.4 −1.1 |
-74+13 −10 | |
Star | WASP-12 |
Physical characteristics | |
Mass | 1.35 ± 0.14 |
Mean density | 326 |
In July, 2014, NASA announced finding very dry atmospheres on three exoplanets (HD 189733b, HD 209458b, WASP-12b) orbiting sun-like stars.[4]