CHEOPS Spots Tidally Deformed Planet around WASP-103 astronomy space science
Also known as TIC 276754403 and 2MASS J16371556+0711000, the star is about 1.7 times larger and 200 degrees Celsius hotter than the Sun.Dr. Lask, Professor Alibert and their colleagues were able to use the transit light curve of WASP-103b to derive a parameter — the Love number — that measures how mass is distributed within a planet.“The resistance of a material to being deformed depends on its composition,” said Dr.
“The rocky part doesn’t move that much. By measuring how much the planet is deformed we can tell how much of it is rocky, gaseous or water.” “In principle we would expect a planet with 1.5 times the mass of the Jupiter to be roughly the same size, so WASP-103b must be very inflated due to heating from its star and maybe other mechanisms,” Dr. Barros said.