Hottest Known Planet May Use Shock Wave | Exoplanets & Alien Worlds | Hottest Planet WASP-12b, Search For Life
A planet called WASP-12b is the hottest planet ever discovered (about 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, or 2,200 degrees Celsius), and orbits its star closer than any other known world. It orbits its star one every Earth day at a distance of about 2 million miles (3.4 million km). WASP-12b is a gaseous planet, about 1.5 times the mass of Jupiter, and almost twice the size. It is 870 light-years from Earth
CREDIT: ESA/NASA/Frederic Pont, Geneva University Observatory
The hottest alien planet yet known may create a shock wave-like shield to protect itself against the atmosphere-stripping side effects of circling close to its parent star, a new study suggests.
Scientists using computer simulations to explain observations of the ultrahot alien planet WASP-12b located around a star 867 light-years from Earth say the exoplanet could be pushing a shock wave — called a bow shock — ahead of it as it plows through a supersonic headwind while orbiting its star. The effect is similar to the shock wave ahead of a supersonic aircraft.
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