CoRoTExo2b - Strange New World in Aquilla

Dear friends ... and especially Mr Euronymous, Sir!

One of the latest and most unorthodox exoplanet discoveries involves CoRoTExo-2b in the constellation of Aquilla. CoRoT is the French-led mission in orbit around earth and whose one of the primary purposes is to follow 12,000 stars per session over 30- and 150-day periods. CoRoTExo2b is the second exoplanet discovery from this mission, announced in the spring of 2008, and the attached light curve is THE FIRST AMATEUR (and groundbased?) RESULT of this most eccentric exoplanet whose mass and radius do not conform with any current models of planetary formation.

This exoplanet transits its parent star over the course of 125 minutes, at a depth of 3.5% (mag 12.57 pre-ingress and mag 12.605 during transit) and requires less than 42 hrs to orbit its sun. All of this is at a distance of 930 light-yrs away.

The result from last night's four-hr session is available at www.perseus.gr/Astro-Photometry-CoRoTExo2-20080606.htm

Weather-permitting, back for another strange new world this evening. :mrgreen:

42 hours ?? thats amazing stuff Anthony!, your light curve is very impressive.!

Hi Dave,

If a year on this planet is 42 hours, that would make me 10,644 years old if I were living on it. :shock:

Speedy Gonzalez extra-ordinaire! :mrgreen:

Fantastic result Anthony.

Also VERY puzzling.

How can a planetary object with mass .31 Jupiters exist so close to a star so like our own sun? (Mass= 0.97 sun and Radius=0.9 sun.)

One would expect it to be "blowtorched" and evaporated into oblivion by the stellar radiation in no time at all!

Interesting stuff there Anthony,

I think you're well and truly hooked on these extrasolar planets.

Well done, very nice light curve, keep up the facinating work.

Fantastic result Anthony.

Also VERY puzzling.

How can a planetary object with mass .31 Jupiters exist so close to a star so like our own sun? (Mass= 0.97 sun and Radius=0.9 sun.)

One would expect it to be "blowtorched" and evaporated into oblivion by the stellar radiation in no time at all!

well, it must have migrated towards the star in recent (astronomicallly speaking) times.