Exoplanets: Ultra-hot gas giant orbits its star once every 16 hours

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The second hottest planet ever found is being pulled into its star faster than any planet we have seen before



Space



30 November 2021

By Jonathan O’Callaghan

A hot planet transits in front of its parent star in this artist impression of an exoplanet system.

Artist’s impression of a hot planet transiting in front of its parent star

ESA/ATG medialab, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

A gas giant exoplanet has been found that orbits around its star once every 16 hours, and it is being pulled towards its star faster than any other known world.

TOI-2109b is a planet five times the mass of Jupiter, located about 850 light years from Earth. It has the shortest orbital period of any gas giant known, surpassing the previous record of 18 hours. “It’s a new record-holder,” says Ian Wong at the Massachusetts Institute of …