WASP-12 - an intense place.
In 10 million years, star WASP-12 will completely consume of the hottest known planets in the Milky Way; its own planet WASP-12b. Although 10 million years is a long stretch to humans, it’s a very small speck on the cosmic scale.
WASP-12 is a yellow dwarf star situated around 600 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Auriga. 40 times larger than Jupiter, the planet WASP-12b is being stretched out and dissolved into the orbital disks of its parent star because of the enormous tidal forces from its mega-heated parent star.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has repeatedly analyzed this exoplanet after its discovery in 2008, detecting both temperature and the speed of the movement. Because of its close proximity to WASP-12, WASP-12b orbits its star in just over one Earth-day. It is stretched into a egg-like shape due to the strong tidal forces from WASP-12, is heated to around 1,537° C (2,800° F), and its surface is charred/looks as dark as asphalt in visible light. The planet can only be imaged well in infrared light, where it glows due to its high temperature.
WASP-12b is also surrounded by a huge cloud of discharged material circling the planet that will be captured by its parent star. Interactions between the star, this cloud of material, and the orbiting planet have been sufficient to slow down the time of WASP-12b's orbit to the point where differences in the time of its transit between 2008 and 2019 are measureable, meaning friction will eventually cause this planet to spiral all the way into its star.
-JMP
For further reading on this subject: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=412317895500055&set=a.384930361572142.92215.334816523250193&type=3&theater
Information Source(s):
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121119213147.htm
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/0525/Hubble-telescope-observes-star-devouring-planet-WASP-12b
https://www.sciencealert.com/hot-jupiter-wasp-104b-one-of-the-darkest-planets-ever
https://wasp-planets.net/2019/11/26/the-orbit-of-wasp-12b-is-decaying/
Image Credit: ESA/ C. Carreau
