Scientists have determined that the shape of the giant exoplanet, which was first detected 7 years ago, is more like an American football than a sphere.
Located about 1225 light-years from Earth, the planet dubbed “WASP-103b” was first spotted in 2014 and observed with the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes.
Astronomers wanted to observe WASP-103b from another perspective with the Swiss and European Space Agency Exoplanet Identification Satellite (CHEOPS) mission, which searches for potentially habitable planets.
Scientists discovered the shape of the exoplanet resembling an American football, thanks to the CHEOPS satellite sent into space in 2019 observing WASP-103b as it passed in front of its star.
In the article published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics about the discovery, it was stated that because WASP-103b is 50 times closer to its star than the Earth is to the Sun, very large tides are suspected to occur on the planet, and the different shape of the planet is probably due to this.
Gas giant WASP-103b, 2 times the size of Jupiter, completes its orbit around its star in about 1 Earth day.
Astronomers state that WASP-103b is moving away from its star, acting contrary to the principle that a planet of this size and so close to its star normally gets closer to its star over time and is swallowed.
The Hubble Space Telescope had discovered that the shape of a planet, previously named WASP-121b, resembles an American football due to its star’s extreme heat and intense gravitational pull.
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