29.03.2016 change 29.03.2016

Poles observed a falling planet

Photometric telescope at the Torun Centre for Astronomy of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Piwnice near Toruń. Source: Nicolaus Copernicus University Photometric telescope at the Torun Centre for Astronomy of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Piwnice near Toruń. Source: Nicolaus Copernicus University

In about one million years one of extrasolar planets will fall onto its parent star - shows research of a team from the Torun Centre for Astronomy of the Nicolaus Copernicus University. The orbit of the planet decreases by about 600 m per year, and responsible for the phenomenon are the tides, which the planet causes on its parent star.

The phenomenon indicating that one of the extrasolar planets is falling onto its parent star has been observed by Dr. Gracjan Maciejewski from the Torun Centre for Astronomy of the Nicolaus Copernicus University and his international research team.

The planet in question is WASP-12 b. "It was discovered in 2008 in the project Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) and it astounded astronomers from the very beginning" - said Dr. Gracjan Maciejewski.

The planet is classified as a gas giant, a planet that is similar to Jupiter and Saturn. It is, however, surprisingly close to its parent star, the distance is only 3.4 million km (17 times closer than Mercury from the Sun). Due to this, the planet temperature is high, approx. two thousand deg. Celsius. "Moreover, the orbit of the planet WASP-12 b is oriented in such a way that we can observe a transit, temporary weakening of the star brightness due to a portion of the disk being obstructed by the planet. This happens periodically, every 26 hours and 12 minutes, which is full orbital period of the planet around its star. For comparison, the Earth needs a year, or 8,766 hours to make a full circle around the Sun" - informed the Nicolaus Copernicus University in a release.

"I started studies of this extrasolar planetary system in 2010. Initially my attention focused on certain features of the planet\'s orbit, which could indicate the existence of additional planets in this system. By analysing observational material I noticed that the orbital period of the planet steadily reduced at a rate of 26 thousandths of a second per year. In other words - orbit decreases by about 600 m per year" - explained the astronomer from the Nicolaus Copernicus University.

Calculations show that the planet will ultimately fall onto the star in about one million years. It is a very short time compared with the age of the planetary system, estimated at about 2 billion years. Responsible for shortening orbit are tides, which the planet causes on its parent star. Similar phenomenon can be observed on Earth in the form of sea tides, the formation of which is caused by the gravitational force of the moon and the sun. These research results provide unique information about the properties of the interior of the star.

Because of the large distance to of the planetary system - the star disk can not be seen even with the largest telescopes. However, during the transit some of the light emitted by the star is obscured by the planet, which is observed as a subtle glow drop. In the case of the planet WASP-12 b, this phenomenon lasts 3 hours, during which the glow of the star drops by 1.5 percent. Most of the observations were made with telescopes located in the south of Spain, Bulgaria and the Canary Islands. Some of the key observations were made with photometric telescope at the Centre for Astronomy in Piwnice near Toruń.

In addition to colleagues from Bulgaria, Spain, Germany and South Korea, members of Dr. Maciejewski\'s team were also Grzegorz Nowak from the NCU\'s Centre for Astronomy and Dr. Łukasz Bukowiecki - graduate of doctoral studies at the Nicolaus Copernicus University.

The results will be published in the April issue of the journal "Astronomy and Astrophysics". Link to original article is available on the website.

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