A team of experts from NASA’s Chandra Observatory has discovered that a planet is aging the star it orbits as it is weakening its magnetic field. The planet in question is WASP-18b, located about 330 light years from Earth .
This planet, with an estimated mass of ten times that of Jupiter, orbits its star once every 23 hours , which has attracted a lot of attention from astronomers, because Jupiter, for example, takes about 12 years to complete its Orbit around the Sun. Its star, they point out, would be between 500 and 2 billion years old, making it relatively young in astronomical measurements.
The fact that WASP-18b is so close to its star (with the consequent gravitational pull of it) is the reason why this decrease in the magnetic field of the star WASP-18 is taking place , as the researchers explain to the Astronomy and Astrophysic journal.
“WASP-18b is an extreme exoplanet . It is one of the most massive hot Jupiters we know of and one of the closest to its host star, and these characteristics lead to unexpected behavior. This planet is causing its star to behave like a star that aged before its time, ”says Ignazio Pillitteri, co-author of the study.
Magnetic activity or X-ray emission are closely related to the rate of rotation and the age of a star. The older it is, the less explosions, magnetic activity, or X-rays it exhibits . What was peculiar in this case was that, despite the youth of this star, astronomers were unable to detect X-rays.
“The planet’s gravity can cause movements of the gas inside that weaken the star’s convection. This has a domino effect that means that the magnetic field is weakening and the star ages prematurely, ”the study authors say.
