WASP-12
system
WASP-12 is a Sun-like star about 1,390 light-years away in Auriga, whose planet is meeting a spectacular end: WASP-12 b, a hot Jupiter so close that the star is pulling it apart — stretched into an egg shape, bleeding gas, its orbit slowly decaying toward destruction.
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Key facts
Type
Sun-like star + doomed hot Jupiter
Distance
1,390 light-years
Confirmed planets
1
Fate
Being devoured — orbit decaying
Science
Classification
- Type
- Single Sun-like (~F9) system
- Central star
- WASP-12 — Sun-like, ~6265 K, 1.33 M☉
Planets
- Confirmed planets
- 1 · WASP-12 b, a doomed hot Jupiter
- Being consumed
- Tidally egg-shaped; orbit decaying by milliseconds/year
Distance
- Distance
- 1,390 light-years · in Auriga, the Charioteer
How we know
- Note
- One confirmed transiting planet with a measured mass (NASA Exoplanet Archive, checked 2026-07-07), so its size and density are real. The tidal distortion, mass loss and decaying orbit are established from photometry and transit-timing — real measurements, though the planet itself has never been imaged. Placed at its real position, 1,390 light-years away, the farthest of this batch but still inside the local arm frame.
Discovery & history
- Name
- A designation from the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) survey; the star has no proper name.
WASP-12 b was found transiting in 2008. It orbits so close that its star's gravity has stretched it into a rugby-ball shape and is stripping gas from it; the planet is also pitch-black, reflecting almost no light. Repeated timing shows its orbit is shrinking by milliseconds a year — the planet is spiralling in and will be devoured.
Images
Images from open archives · credit shown per image