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WASP 12b gets a bit too close to its sun

Planet WASP 12-b (named so, as it was discovered by the UK SuperWASP team – cool, I want to be in a team with a funky name like that too) is believed to be the closest orbiting planet to its star.

So close, it’s being devoured by it. A gas planet about 1.4 times the size of Jupiter, it has a mean surface temperature of 2,200°C and completes its orbit in just 1.1 days (just the thought make me dizzy).  Due to its proximity, scientists believe that WASP 12-b is being boiled off and blown into space and creating a cloud of super heated gas around the planet.  Estimates assume it will be ‘consumed’ in the next billion years.

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