This new 'hot Jupiter' can spin its star

 New York, June 8: An intertiol team of astronomers has discovered a “hot Jupiter” exoplanet that is so massive and close to its parent star that it influences the star’s rotation with its gravity, media reported. The planet, called HATS-18b, is about 2,100 light years away, Popular Mechanics reported on Tuesday. Hot Jupiters are giant exoplanets that orbit close to their parent stars. Also known as roaster planets, they orbit their stars in a short time and can be easily observed in transit. The newly discovered exoplanet orbits its star in just 0.84 days, has a radius about 1.34 times that of Jupiter, and has twice the mass of the Jovian gas giant in our solar system, the report said. The research team was led by Kaloyan Penev of Princeton University.

“The high planet mass, combined with its short orbital period, implies strong tidal coupling between the planetary orbit and the star,” said the researchers. “In fact, given its inferred age, [the star] HATS-18 shows evidence of significant tidal spin up,” the authors said. (IANS)