New Delhi:
An international team of astronomers has discovered a giant 'hot Jupiter' exoplanet. This hot Jupiter exoplanet is called HATS-18b, is about 2,100 light years away. The latest discovery of giant ‘hot Jupiter’ exoplanet, named ‘HATS-18b’ by the team of astronomers, is so powerful that it can influence the rotation of its star with its gravity.
What are exoplanets?
These are planets which orbit a star outside the solar system.
What are hot Jupiters?
These are giant exoplanets that orbit close to their parent stars and are also known as roaster planets, they orbit their stars in a short time and can be easily observed in transit.
This newly discovered exoplanet orbits its star in just 0.84 days and has a radius about 1.34 times that of Jupiter. This has twice the mass of the Jovian gas giant in our solar system, reportedly.
The research team was led by Kaloyan Penev of Princeton University. "The high planet mass, combined with its short orbital period, implies strong tidal coupling between the planetary orbit and the star," said the researchers.
The new findings were presented in a paper published online on arXiv.org.
The authors noted, “The HATS-18 system is among the best systems (and often the best system) for testing a multitude of star–planet interactions, be they gravitational, magnetic or radiative, as well as planet formation and migration theories.”
