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Devoured: Hungry Star Eats Planet
One planet, WASP-12b, is being tortured by its host star. This planet, forty times the mass of Jupiter and located six hundred light-years away from our solar system in the constellation of Auriga, is destined for an ugly fate. The planet orbits incredibly close to its star: it takes 1.1 days to complete one orbit and its surface temperature is practically 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit, making it the hottest known planet in the entire Milky Way galaxy. On top of that, the star's gravity has such great affects upon the planet, tidal forces have squashed it into a football shape--plus, the star is tearing at the planet's atmosphere.
Consequently, according to observations made by the new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, or COS, instrument aboard the Hubble Space Telescope, the planet is slowly being eaten by its parent star. Although, it will take another ten million years before the planet will be completely consumed, by comparison, the sun should live to be about ten billion years old. Thus, not only is this planet the hottest in our galaxy, it may also have the shortest lifespan. Clearly, WASP-12b is doomed.
The COS instrument measures the dimming of the star as WASP-12b passes in front of it and spectral observations showed absorption lines of aluminum, tin, and manganese. When the planet transits the star, the quantity of these elements increases, meaning that the planet's atmosphere must contain the same kinds of elements as in the star's atmosphere. By determining the amount of light blocked when the planet transits the star, the COS can also tell scientists the planet's radius, which showed that WASP-12b is much different than a normal planet. Its radius is so extended, it exceeds its Roche lobe, allowing material to escape the gravitational pull of the planet--to be sucked up by the star.
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