Hubble spotted a light-eating gas giant exoplanet

When it comes to the different kinds of planets out there, orbiting other stars in our galaxy, and in our universe, it’s easy to imagine our mix of planets as being pretty standard. But the more likely scenario is that it doesn’t even scratch the surface. There have to be all kinds of weird planets out there. Take the exoplanet WASP-12b for example, a planet darker than fresh asphalt.

12b, located in a system about 1,400 light years from our solar system, is one of the coolest (by which I mean hottest) and most alien-sounding planets researchers have yet found.

The planet is categorized as a “Hot Jupiter” type planet. It’s a gas giant, relatively close in size to our own planet Jupiter, but it orbits its sun much, much more closely. Our planet rotates around the sun at about 1AU (astronomical unit), while the closest planet in our system, Mercury, rotates the sun at about 0.39AU. WASP-12b, in comparison, rotates at just 0.0229AU. A complete rotation of the sun – a year, in other words – takes 12b just under one earth day.

Article source: https://www.technobuffalo.com/2017/09/18/hubble-hot-jupiter-light-eating-gas-giant/