Scientists discover hottest ever planet
By IANSFriday, January 28, 2011
LONDON - An exoplanet has been found to be the hottest planet discovered so far with a record-breaking temperature of 3,200 degrees Celsius.
The planet WASP-33b, is also known as HD15082. Its scorching temperature is explained by its close orbit around its star, itself one of the hottest planet-hosting stars at 7,160 degrees Celsius, the New Scientist reports.
Scientists were first alerted to WASP-33b’s existence in 2006, after observing regularly timed dimmings of its parent star.
This was caused by the planet, four-and-a-half times the size of Jupiter, orbiting its star at less than seven percent the distance of Mercury from the Sun, according to the Daily Mail.
This is not to be scoffed at considering the star’s temperature of 7,160 degrees Celsius dwarfs the sun’s 5,600 degrees Celsius.
A study led by Alexis Smith of Keele University in Staffordshire, Britain, discovered WASP-33b’s thermal emission using an infrared camera on the William Herschel Telescope in the Canary Islands.
Its temperature is 900 degrees Celsius hotter than what was formerly the hottest known planet in the Milky Way Galaxy. Scientists believe that the planet, called WASP-12b and which lies 600 light-years away from Earth, may only have another 10 million years left before it is completely devoured.
