Article Posted on : - May 21, 2010

Artist's concept of the exoplanet WASP-12b. Credit: NASA/ESA

WASHINGTON (BNS): A massive exoplanet, the hottest known planet in the Milky Way galaxy, in the process of being devoured by its very parent star has been spotted by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

The bizarre occurrence of the planet taking the shape of a football and spilling material into its host star has been captured for the first time.

The exoplanet – WASP-12b – is 40 percent more massive than Jupiter. Its parent star, WASP-12, is a yellow dwarf star that lies approximately 600 light-years away in the winter constellation Auriga.

The planet is so close to its Sun-like host star that it is superheated to nearly 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit and stretched into a football shape by enormous tidal forces. The atmosphere has ballooned to nearly three times Jupiter's radius and is spilling material onto the star, NASA said.

“We see a huge cloud of material around the planet, which is escaping and will be captured by the star. We have identified chemical elements never before seen on planets outside our own solar system,” said Carole Haswell who has studied the planet and the star.

While exchange of matter between two stellar objects is a common phenomenon in close binary systems, this is the first time such an occurrence has been noticed with a planet and its host star.

The researchers predict that the planet may live for another 10 million years after which it will be completely eaten up by its host star.

The researchers have published the report in the May 10, 2010 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.