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Suicidal Planet WASP-18, Creator of Its Own Demise
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by Tina Kells | August 26, 2009 at 12:18 pm
2020 views | 5 Recommendations | 6 comments
A distant planet in a far away solar system, WASP-18, has been identified by astronomers as a "suicidal planet" because its own behavior as it orbits it sun is causing destructive cosmic forces. WASP-18 is orbiting too close to its sun which is causing plasma tides on the star. Those plasma tides will eventually rise to engulf WASP-18.
WASP-18 orbits an unnamed star in the constellation Phoenix, about 325 light years from Earth, a satellite galaxy to our own Milky Way. WASP-18 is orbiting nearly 50 times closer to its sun than Earth does to ours. It is a very large planet, at least ten times the size of our solar system's giant, Jupiter.
When this very large "suicidal planet" collides with the plasma tides from its sun there it will be a cosmic disaster, but the astronomers who discovered its looming doom won't be around to see WASP-18's spectacular end. WASP-18 has at least 1 million years left to live.
The odd, fiery planet is so close to its star and so large that it is triggering tremendous plasma tides on the star. Those powerful tides are in turn warping the planet's zippy less-than-a-day orbit around its star.
The result: an ever-closer tango of death, with the planet eventually spiraling into the star.
It is a slow death. The planet WASP-18b has maybe a million years to live, said planet discoverer Coel Hellier, a professor of astrophysics at Keele University in England. Hellier's report on the suicidal planet is in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.
"It's causing its own destruction by creating these tides," Hellier said.
The planet, WASP-18b, is one of the "hot Jupiter" class of planets that are huge in size (10 times the mass of Jupiter in this case), but orbit very close to their stars. Their very existence was surprising to astronomers when the first of them were found a few years back. Now they've become common discoveries.
But this scorched, gaseous world is only one of two known exoplanets that orbits its star in less than one Earth day (0.94 days to be exact). Coupled with its hefty mass, this leads to strong gravitational tugs between the planet and its star, WASP-18. (WASP stands for the Wide Angle Search for Planets, run by several universities in Britain.)
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (6)
at 10:08 on August 27th, 2009
I believe. because the end of the time is closeing this is unleashed on univers you know black hold.
at 01:44 on August 28th, 2009
Sooo much sound is coming from the core of that planet it keeps at bay forcing the tides on the surface of the star it is circling piezo-electric core destabalization interaction. If the planet surface was rocky it would start to burn off coming closer to the star then back away to a farther distance after the burn off. Sounds like a half witted pulsar in the making to me.
at 06:43 on August 28th, 2009
It's not surprising. Binary star systems are a regular occurence. In this case, its neighbor missed the stage to turn into a star (perhaps it developed a rocky core), much like Jupiter.
at 06:48 on August 28th, 2009
that is so cool i would love to see it happen i wonder a planet that size would do to a sun
at 17:29 on August 30th, 2009
you guys are cruel,and just jerks! I cant beileve you would think that was cool! Im trying to save these planets, but you cant wait to see them destroyed!
at 11:48 on August 31st, 2009
Mathematical BreakthroughIt is now mathematical proven that the decelerating force that affected the Pioneer probes and the accelerating force that had caused many Fly-by anomalies: 1.) Both affect the Earth (and the planets) as well, - and with full force. 2.) Automatically equalize each other (when affecting the planets). 3.) This explains the cause of the WASP-18b mystery and all the probes anomalies as well. Read science27. com > the chapter "The Pionner anomaly"