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An orbital period of 0.94 days for the hot-Jupiter planet WASP-18b

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Hellier, Coel, Anderson, D. R., Cameron, A. Collier, Gillon, M., Hebb, L., Maxted, P. F. L., Queloz, D., Smalley, B., Triaud, A. H. M. J., West, Richard G. et al.
(2009) An orbital period of 0.94 days for the hot-Jupiter planet WASP-18b. Nature, Vol.460 (No.7259). pp. 1098-1100. doi:10.1038/nature08245 ISSN 0028-0836.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature08245

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Abstract

The 'hot Jupiters' that abound in lists of known extrasolar planets are thought to have formed far from their host stars, but migrate inwards through interactions with the proto-planetary disk from which they were born(1,2), or by an alternative mechanism such as planet-planet scattering(3). The hot Jupiters closest to their parent stars, at orbital distances of only similar to 0.02 astronomical units, have strong tidal interactions(4,5), and systems such as OGLE-TR-56 have been suggested as tests of tidal dissipation theory(6,7). Here we report the discovery of planet WASP-18b with an orbital period of 0.94 days and a mass of ten Jupiter masses (10 M-Jup), resulting in a tidal interaction an order of magnitude stronger than that of planet OGLE-TR-56b. Under the assumption that the tidal-dissipation parameter Q of the host star is of the order of 10 6, as measured for Solar System bodies and binary stars and as often applied to extrasolar planets, WASP-18b will be spiralling inwards on a timescale less than a thousandth that of the lifetime of its host star. Therefore either WASP-18 is in a rare, exceptionally short-lived state, or the tidal dissipation in this system (and possibly other hot-Jupiter systems) must be much weaker than in the Solar System.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: Q Science
Divisions: Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Physics
Journal or Publication Title: Nature
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
ISSN: 0028-0836
Official Date: 27 August 2009
Dates:
DateEvent
27 August 2009Published
Volume: Vol.460
Number: No.7259
Number of Pages: 3
Page Range: pp. 1098-1100
DOI: 10.1038/nature08245
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Access rights to Published version: Restricted or Subscription Access
Description:

Letter

Funder: UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council

Data sourced from Thomson Reuters' Web of Knowledge

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