A team of British astronomers has discovered a planet ten times the volume of Jupiter that orbits so close to its star that stellar currents should have already driven it to destruction.
As published today by the British journal Nature , the planet, baptized as WASP-18b , belongs to the group of "hot Jupiters", that is, those that are formed far from the star around which they orbit and that approach the same over the years with the help of stellar currents. However, this body is so large and so close to its parent star that currents should have caused it to hit the star some time ago. Not in vain its "year", that is, the time it takes to complete an orbit , is currently only 0.94 Earth days .
As a possible explanation for its survival, scientists point out that the stellar currents of that system are less strong than those of our solar system. Another possibility would be that another element not yet identified is the one that avoids the collision of the planet with its star and its consequent destruction.
The finding of WASP-18b is considered a rarity in the world of astronomy, and the probability of observing such a phenomenon is 1 in 1,000, according to experts.
