Paris – AFP
The European space telescope “Cube” dedicated to observing the outer planets has made it possible for the first time to detect a planet with a distorted shape resembling a rugby ball, due to the effect of attraction to it due to its star.
The rare bird, called WASP-103b, is located in the constellation “Hercules”, at a very modest distance of regarding 1,800 light-years from the solar system.
The team of astronomers at the University of Porto, led by Portuguese astrophysicist Susana Barros, was looking for a sample that was very distorted due to its proximity to its star, said Jacques Laskar, who co-authored the study published Tuesday in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
The astrophysicist at the Paris-BSL Observatory added that the goal was “to see if it is possible to discover the shape of a planet by observing its transit curve”, that is, the contrast that the planet produces in the light of the star when it passes in front of it, and explained that the idea is that “The transit curve would not be the same if a planet such as a rugby or soccer ball was passing in front of the star.”
As for the deformation of the planet, it is then assumed that it provides information regarding its internal structure, which is closer to being rocky or gaseous, and Susanna Barros noted in a statement issued by the European Space Agency that “the resistance of a material to deformation depends on its composition.”
It is likely that the cause of the great distortion of the planet is its close proximity to its star and its greater impact on the attraction that is called the tidal force. Here stems the famous analogy of its shape to “potato”.
rare shape
WASP-103b is a close distance away from its star WASP-103, which is regarding 50 times closer to its sun than Earth is to its sun, to the extent that the planet’s cycle takes only 22 hours, while the Earth’s cycle takes 365 days.
The WASP-103b is then subjected to a massive tidal force that fails to tear it apart, giving it its rare, circular shape.
The team led by Susanna Barros came to the following conclusion: If WASP-130b is one and a half times more massive than Jupiter, the gas giant in our solar system, then its radius is twice as large. And Susanna Barros predicted that this planet would be “very puffy because of the hotness of its star, and perhaps due to other mechanisms.”
Scientists assume that this planet, like Jupiter, has a solid core, covered with a liquid layer, and surrounded by a gaseous atmosphere. But they will work to know its composition more precisely, and they intend to seek for this purpose to observe it using the James Webb Space Telescope.
This would allow a “better understanding of how” the planet got to this location, said Jacques Lascar, who “might not have been born here”.
The Cubes mission, launched in December 2019, is to determine the first characteristics of exoplanets.
This telescope, which was established as a result of a partnership between the European Space Agency and Switzerland, and employs regarding 100 engineers and scientists from eleven European countries, is equipped with a photometric device that accurately measures the level of radiation emitted by each celestial body and that is reflected by its outer planet.
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