WASP-12b as a prolate, inflated and disrupting planet from tidal dissipation
arXiv:1002.4608 · doi:10.1038/nature08715
Abstract
The class of exotic Jupiter-mass planets that orbit very close to their parent stars were not explicitly expected before their discovery. The recently found transiting planet WASP-12b has a mass Mp = 1.4(+/-0.1) Jupiter masses (MJ), a mean orbital distance of only 3.1 stellar radii (meaning it is subject to intense tidal forces), and a period of 1.1 days. Its radius 1.79(+/- 0.09) RJ is unexpectedly large and its orbital eccentricity 0.049(+/-0:015) is even more surprising as such close orbits are in general quickly circularized. Here we report an analysis of its properties, which reveals that the planet is losing mass to its host star at a rate ~ 10^-7 MJ yr^-1. The planets surface is distorted by the stars gravity and the light curve produced by its prolate shape will differ by about ten per cent from that of a spherical planet. We conclude that dissipation of the stars tidal perturbation in the planets convective envelope provides the energy source for its large volume. We predict up to 10mJy CO band-head (2.292 micron) emission from a tenuous disk around the host star, made up of tidally stripped planetary gas. It may also contain a detectable resonant super-Earth, as a hypothetical perturber that continually stirs up WASP-12b's eccentricity.
Accepted to Nature, 14 pages, 1 figure
References in corpus (2)
Cited by in corpus (92)
- Metals in the Exosphere of the Highly Irradiated Planet WASP-12b
- Extremely Irradiated Hot Jupiters: Non-Oxide Inversions, H- Opacity, and Thermal Dissociation of Molecules
- Near-UV Absorption, Chromospheric Activity, and Star-Planet Interactions in the WASP-12 system
- WASP-121 b: a hot Jupiter in a polar orbit and close to tidal disruption
- Jupiter models with improved ab initio hydrogen EOS (H-REOS.2)
- Thermal Phase Variations of WASP-12b: Defying Predictions
- Consequences of the Ejection and Disruption of Giant Planets
- Early UV Ingress in WASP-12b: Measuring Planetary Magnetic Fields
- The Apparently Decaying Orbit of WASP-12
- Simulating the escaping atmospheres of hot gas planets in the solar neighborhood
- The Orbit of WASP-12b is Decaying
- Characterizing Transiting Planet Atmospheres through 2025
- Departure from the constant-period ephemeris for the transiting exoplanet WASP-12 b
- On the Orbit of Exoplanet WASP-12b
- Re-Evaluating WASP-12b: Strong Emission at 2.315 micron, Deeper Occultations, and an Isothermal Atmosphere
- 3D Gas Dynamic Simulation of the Interaction Between the Exoplanet WASP-12b and Its Host Star
- Probing the extreme planetary atmosphere of WASP-12b
- Hot Jupiter Magnetospheres
- Mass Transfer, Transiting Stream and Magnetopause in Close-in Exoplanetary Systems with Applications to WASP-12
- Mass-loss rates for transiting exoplanets
- Optical and X-ray Transients from Planet-Star Mergers
- Near-infrared Thermal Emission from WASP-12b: detections of the secondary eclipse in Ks, H & J
- WASP-103b: a new planet at the edge of tidal disruption
- Features in the Broadband Eclipse Spectra of Exoplanets: Signal or Noise?
- A photochemical model for the carbon-rich planet WASP-12b
- The shocking transit of WASP-12b: Modelling the observed early ingress in the near ultraviolet
- Absorbing gas around the WASP-12 planetary system
- A detailed spectropolarimetric analysis of the planet hosting star WASP-12
- Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Hot Jupiter Upper Atmospheres
- Warm Spitzer Photometry of the Transiting Exoplanets CoRoT-1 and CoRoT-2 at Secondary Eclipse
- Simulated Photoevaporative Mass Loss from Hot Jupiters in 3D
- WASP-12b and HAT-P-8b are Members of Triple Star Systems
- A simple model of the reflection effect for the interacting binaries and extrasolar planets
- Mass Loss from the Exoplanet WASP-12b Inferred from Phase Curves
- Hydrogen and Sodium Absorption in the Optical Transmission Spectrum of WASP-12b
- A Population of Very-Hot Super-Earths in Multiple-Planet Systems Should be Uncovered by Kepler
- A lower radius and mass for the transiting extrasolar planet HAT-P-8b
- On the Survivability and Metamorphism of Tidally Disrupted Giant Planets: the Role of Dense Cores
- Distorted, non-spherical transiting planets: impact on the transit depth and on the radius determination
- High-precision photometry by telescope defocussing. VII. The ultra-short period planet WASP-103
- HATS-2b: A transiting extrasolar planet orbiting a K-type star showing starspot activity
- The Possible Orbital Decay and Transit Timing Variations of the Planet WASP-43b
- WTS-2 b: a hot Jupiter orbiting near its tidal destruction radius around a K-dwarf
- H and He I absorption in HAT-P-32 b observed with CARMENES -- Detection of Roche lobe overflow and mass loss
- Multi-site campaign for transit timing variations of WASP-12 b: possible detection of a long-period signal of planetary origin
- A New Model of Roche-lobe Overflow for Short-Period Gaseous Planets and Binary Stars
- Interaction of Close-in Planets with the Magnetosphere of their Host Stars. II. Super-Earths as Unipolar Inductors and their Orbital Evolution
- Types of Gaseous Envelopes of "Hot Jupiter" Exoplanets
- Tidal Decay and Stable Roche-Lobe Overflow of Short-Period Gaseous Exoplanets
- High-precision photometry of WASP-12 b transits
- TOI-2109b: An Ultrahot Gas Giant on a 16 hr Orbit
- Explorations into the Viability of Coupled Radius-Orbit Evolutionary Models for Inflated Planets
- Eating Planets for Lunch and Dinner: Signatures of Planet Consumption by Evolving Stars
- Transiting the Sun: The impact of stellar activity on X-ray and ultraviolet transits
- High-resolution detection of neutral oxygen and non-LTE effects in the atmosphere of KELT-9b
- Orbital eccentricity of WASP-12 and WASP-14 from new radial-velocity monitoring with SOPHIE
- Variation in the pre-transit Balmer line signal around the hot Jupiter HD 189733 b
- Too Little, Too Late: How the Tidal Evolution of Hot Jupiters affects Transit Surveys of Clusters
- Evaporation of Jupiter like planets orbiting extreme horizontal branch stars
- ULTRACAM z'-band Detection of the Secondary Eclipse of WASP-12b
- Tidally Distorted Exoplanets: Density Corrections for Short-Period Hot-Jupiters based solely on Observable Parameters
- On possible types of magnetospheres of hot Jupiters
- Constraining tidal dissipation in F-type main-sequence stars: the case of CoRoT-11
- Ground-based, Near-infrared Exospectroscopy. II. Tentative Detection of Emission From the Extremely Hot Jupiter WASP-12b
- Embryo impacts and gas giant mergers II: Diversity of Hot Jupiters' internal structure
- WASP-54b, WASP-56b and WASP-57b: Three new sub-Jupiter mass planets from SuperWASP
- The HD 137496 system: A dense, hot super-Mercury and a cold Jupiter
- Far-UV spectroscopy of the planet-hosting star WASP-13: high-energy irradiance, distance, age, planetary mass-loss rate, and circumstellar environment
- Modelling atmospheric escape and MgII near-ultraviolet absorption of the highly irradiated hot Jupiter WASP-12b
- Formation of eccentric gas discs from sublimating or partially disrupted asteroids orbiting white dwarfs
- Transit Timing Variation of XO-3b: Evidence for Tidal Evolution of Hot Jupiter with High Eccentricity
- Roche-lobe overflow in eccentric planet-star systems
- TASTE V. A new ground-based investigation of orbital decay in the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-12b
- Signatures of Obliquity in Thermal Phase Curves of Hot Jupiters
- Detection of brown dwarf-like objects in the core of NGC3603
- Magnetic effect on equilibrium tides and its influence on the orbital evolution of binary systems
- UVMag: stellar formation, evolution, structure and environment with space UV and visible spectropolarimetry
- Reassessing Exoplanet Light Curves with a Thermal Model
- Hot Jupiter engulfment by a red giant in 3D hydrodynamics
- Tesseral harmonics of Jupiter from static tidal response
- WASP-12b: A Mass-Losing Extremely Hot Jupiter
- Stellar Coronal and Wind Models: Impact on Exoplanets
- Tidally distorted barytropes and their Roche limits, with application to WASP-12b
- The generalized non-conservative model of a 1-planet system - revisited
- Maps and Masses of Transiting Exoplanets: Towards New Insights into Atmospheric and Interior Properties of Planets
- Molecular formation along the atmospheric mass loss of HD 209458 b and similar Hot Jupiters
- PEPSI's non-detection of escaping hydrogen and metal lines adds to the enigma of WASP-12 b
- Mass loss by atmospheric escape from extremely close-in planets
- Observing the Luminosity Increase and Roche Lobe Overflow of Planet Destruction
- On Pulsar-Driven Mass Ejection in Low-Mass X-ray Binaries
- Gaia-GIC-1: An Evolving Catastrophic Planetesimal Collision Candidate
- The Observational Effects and Signatures of Tidally Distorted Solid Exoplanets