Pulsating star that hosts a giant planet discovered
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 - 13:13
in Astronomy & Space
Researchers in Spain have discovered, for the first time, a delta Scuti pulsating star that hosts a hot giant transiting planet. WASP-33 (also known as HD15082) is hotter, more massive than the Sun (1.5 Msun) and is located at a distance of 378 light years away, in the constellation of Andromeda. It has the peculiarity of being a star that pulsates radially, like a balloon that inflates and deflates continuously, and non-radially, like the tides in Earth's oceans caused by the presence of the moon, which deforms the bodies of water between the poles and the equator.