IONIZED PLASMA TORI AROUND WASP-12 B HINTS AT A POSSIBLE EXOMOON?
In 2008 astronomers discovered a extrasolar planet WASP-12 b revolving around a solar-type star 800 light-years from our Solar System. They determined it was a Hot Jupiter with Mass 1.41 times and Radius 1.74 times that of Jupiter, with a tight orbit about 5.8 million kilometers above the primary star's surface in a period of 26 hours 11 minutes. The gaseous planet is so close to WASP-12 that the star's tidal forces are distorting it into an egg shape and pulling away its atmosphere at a rate of about 189 quadrillion tons (1 x 10e7 Jupiter Mass) a year. This so-called "tidal heating," and the proximity of the planet to its star, combine to bring the surface temperature to more than 2,200 degrees Celsius. In September 2017, Hubble Space Telescope was able to confirm the observations that WASP-12 b absorbs, instead of reflects, at least 94% of the light that shines on its surface. As a result, the exoplanet has been described as "black as asphalt" and as a "pitch black" Hot Jupiter with albedo of 0.064 (our Moon has albedo of 0.12). However, WASP-12 b is not the darkest known exoplanet- that award goes to Kepler 1 / TrES-2 b, another Hot Jupiter with albedo of 0.0136 (
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/09/1 ... _exoplanet). For few years they thought that WASP-12 b was carbon-rich because of measured C/O ratio twice that of solar valve. This particular observation, however, was criticized for careless analysis of spectral light coming from WASP-12's two red dwarf companions which orbit close to it few light-years distant (on the website of
https://astrobites.org/2012/10/19/wasp- ... -after-all). And they assumed that a portion of WASP-12 b's atmosphere was lost by thermal swelling and gas drag, pulled toward the star to form a hot gas ring around the star, rather than into a cometary tail, with a greater chance of disappearing in 10 million years. However, there is a greater possibility that planet can retain its atmosphere gases for several billion years by being protected with a supersonic shock wave it sets up ahead in its tight orbit around the star ("Hottest Known Planet May Use Shock Wave To Save Atmosphere" on https://
http://www.space.com/11427-hot-alien-pl ... kwave.html). Finally, Russian astronomers suspected a possible exomoon by their analysis of periodic drips in light from WASP-12 b and then some time later, a team of Arizona University astronomers observed the Hubble Space Telescope's transit timing of drips from ionized gaseous torus of excited magnesium and calcium from both HD 189733 b and WASP-12 b that they were able to make model prediction ("Transit Of Exomoon Plasma Tori: New Diagnosis" on
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1 ... /785/2/L30). WASP-12 b's exomoon orbits at 6 Radius planet with a plasma torus and a retrograde orbit, and its mass is estimated to be between 0.57 - 6.40 Earth Mass. I had worked on making the orbital parameters of such exomoon and choose the minimum mass of 0.6 Earth Mass for two days- using the following: Earth Mass= 5.9736e24 kg; Jupiter's Mass= 1.8989e27 kg (318 Earth Mass); and WASP-12 b's Mass= 2.66872372e27 kg (446.75 Earth Mass). WASP-12b exomoon Mass= 3.60769598e24 kg (0.60394 Earth Mass). So Exomoon + Planet= Total Mass 2.67233142e27 kg. WASP-12 b's jovian Radius is 1.2411e8 m and its exomoon orbit is 7.4466e8 m (6 R planet) or about 744,660 kilometers. Thus orbital distance + planetary radius= 8.6877e8 m. Using the Kepler's 3rd Law Ultra Calculator online on
www.1728.org/kepler3a.htm. Therefore,
*Terra bI, Superearth, 8.6877e8 m, 2.67233142e27 kg= period 3.8808 days or 0.010625 year
Early in the planetary formation almost more than 2 billion years ago, a large Jovian planet made inward migration towards the star WASP-12 and captured a rocky Super Earth into a retrograde orbit which became a satellite- very much like Neptune's giant moon Triton. Both objects experienced extreme tidal heating as they parked into a tight orbit around the star. Interesting thing is that the exomoon makes one retrograde revolution around the planet once, while the planet makes 3.5 prograde revolutions around the star. Intense solar wind and heat blew comet-like gases from both objects- in very compacted dance as viewed from the star's north pole in Space Engine. WASP-12 b exomoon is more like "Supergiant Io"- with extremely hot volcanoes spewing evaporated rock and metal into space and onto the giant planet's atmosphere closeby. Its crust gets pulled apart FOUR TIMES in its single revolution period- and almost fractured through which magma may flow. The ionized plasma torus has ions of +Ti, +Al, +Sn, +Mg, +Ca, +V, +I, +Si, +C and +S, with traces of water and hydrocarbons. The WASP-12 System can demonstrate what happens with the "Grand Tack Event" repented in many exoplanetary systems, in four major scenarios as the following:
A.) Solar System: One large Jovian planet forms and migrates inward into the inner Asteroid Belt where it slingshot thousands of large planetsimals around and demonlish all Super Earths in titanic collisions, before being pulled by second Jovian planet back into the outer zone. Terrestrial planets formed out of demolition debris belt.
B.) 1SWASP J1407 System: One large Jovian planet forms and migrates inward into the inner Asteroid Belt, but encounters another smaller Jovian Planet which tipped it over. In the process, it captures more of planetesimals and debris into a larger ring disk which later formed the large exomoons. No Terrestrial planets were formed in the inner zone due to lack of debris.
C.) WASP-12 System: One large Jovian planet forms and migrates inward into the inner Asteroid Belt where it slingshot the large planetesimals and demolish most but not all of Super Earths as before in Scenario A. It captures one of Super Earths or Hot Neptunes as a satellite into a retrograde orbit on its inward journey to the star. One large Terrestrial planet or none at all may form out of demolition debris belt after the Jovian's passage in the inner zone.
D.) Upsilon Andromedae System: One large Jovian planet forms and migrates inward into the inner Asteroid Belt, but it finds much less planetesimals there on late arrival as most of such material has accreted into Super Earths or Hot Neptunes. Instead, it throws them into the chaotic orbits out of the original plane or ecliptic on its inward migration. No Terrestrial planets were formed in the inner zone.
You may put WASP-12 b.Sc into the SE 0.980's subfold addons/catalogs/planets
One screenshot sample of WASP-12 b Jovian planet with its exomoon
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