It’s a Star-Eat-Planet World
August 9, 2015
| Credit | NASA/JPL-Caltech |
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A truly doomed planet, WASP-12b is being cannibalized by its star. With a 1.1-day orbit, it is so close that the star’s heat is stripping the planet’s atmosphere; this material then falls into the star. In a way, the star is stealing the planet’s powers: It could be completely consumed in just 10 million more years. Meanwhile, the tidal forces acting on the planet are so great that WASP-12b is being stretched into the shape of a football.
