The orbit lookout station Cheops has discovered an exoplanet with a truly peculiar physical body : WASP-103b , turn into a Jupiter - sized rugby football ball by the gravitational pull of its wiz . This is the first time that the deformation of an exoplanet has been detected .
The rummy shape is created by the strong tidal effect the major planet experience . Its star is 1.7 times larger than our Sun ( and a bit hot ) , and WASP-103b orbits very close to it – one yr on that planet is tantamount to one day on Earth .
The major planet was discovered thanks to the theodolite method acting back in 2014 . As it passes in front of the wizard , it blocks a bit of its light , and repeated periodical dips are trademark of a planetal presence . Cheops can follow these low-cal signal with such precision that it could establish the planet ’s shape , long suspected to be vary by the strong pull of the adept . The finding are describe in the journalAstronomy & Astrophysics .
" After observing several such so - called ' transits ' , we were able to mensurate the deformation . It ’s incredible that we were able to do this – it ’s the first time such an analysis has been done , " cobalt - author Babatunde Akinsanmi , a researcher at the University of Geneva , allege in astatement .
Cheops is a joint commission of the European Space Agency and Switzerland . Its observance of this system of rules allowed researcher to appraise the planet ’s Love numeral . This parametric quantity is named after British mathematician Augustus E. H. Love , and indicates how mass is distributed in the satellite . From that , scientist can work out the internal body structure .
“ The resistance of a material to being deformed depend on its piece , ” precede source Susana Barros of Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço and University of Porto , sound out in astatement .
“ For representative , here on Earth we have tides due to the Moon and the Sun but we can only see tides in the oceans . The rough part does n’t move that much . By measuring how much the planet is deformed we can tell how much of it is jolty , gaseous or urine . ”
WASP-103b ’s Love number is standardized to Jupiter . This indicate that its internal complex body part is alike , despite hold 8 times the volume but only 1.5 times the flock . This is certainly an inflated satellite .
“ In principle we would expect a planet with 1.5 sentence the pile of the Jupiter to be close to the same size , so WASP-103b must be very inflated due to heat from its star and maybe other mechanisms , ” added Barros .
The uncertainty on the Love number for WASP-103b is still quite high , but follow - up observance from Cheops and mold by thefreshly launched JWSTwill provide a better understanding of what ’s going on with this rugger - ball - shaped planet .
