CoRoT-2 is a
yellow dwarf main sequence
In astronomy, the main sequence is a continuous and distinctive band of stars that appears on plots of stellar color versus brightness. These color-magnitude plots are known as Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams after their co-developers, Ejnar Her ...
star
A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...
a little cooler than the
Sun. This star is located approximately 700
light-year
A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...
s away in the
constellation
A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object.
The origins of the e ...
of
Aquila. The
apparent magnitude
Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object's apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object's li ...
of this star is 12, which means it is not visible to the
naked eye
Naked eye, also called bare eye or unaided eye, is the practice of engaging in visual perception unaided by a magnifying, light-collecting optical instrument, such as a telescope or microscope, or eye protection. Vision corrected to normal ...
but can be seen with a medium-sized
amateur telescope
''Amateur Telescope Making'' (''ATM'') is a series of three books edited by Albert G. Ingalls between 1926 and 1953 while he was an associate editor at ''Scientific American''. The books cover various aspects of telescope construction and observ ...
on a clear dark night.
It has a true physical companion, 2MASS J19270636+0122577, with a spectral type of K9, as earlier hypothesized by Alonso et al. (2008), making CoRoT-2 a wide binary system with at least one planet.
Planetary system
This star is home to
exoplanet
An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...
CoRoT-2b
CoRoT-2b (formerly known as CoRoT-Exo-2b) is the second extrasolar planet to be detected by the French-led CoRoT mission, and orbits the star CoRoT-2 at a distance of 700 light years from Earth towards the constellation Aquila. Its discovery w ...
discovered by the
CoRoT Mission spacecraft using the
transit method.
CoRoT-2b (formerly known as CoRoT-Exo-2b) is the second
extrasolar planet to be detected by the French-led
CoRoT mission, and orbits the star CoRoT-2 at a distance of 930
light year
A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...
s from
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
towards the constellation
Aquila. Its discovery was announced on 20 December 2007. After its discovery via the
transit method, its mass was confirmed via the radial velocity method.
The planet is a large
hot Jupiter
Hot Jupiters (sometimes called hot Saturns) are a class of gas giant exoplanets that are inferred to be physically similar to Jupiter but that have very short orbital periods (). The close proximity to their stars and high surface-atmosphere temp ...
, about 1.43 times the radius of
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...
and approximately 3.3 times as massive. Its huge size is due to the intense heating from its parent star, which causes the outer layers of its atmosphere to bloat. The extremely large radius of the planet indicates that CoRoT-2b is really hot, estimated to be around 1500 K, even hotter than would be expected given its location close to its parent star. This fact may be a sign of
tidal heating due to interactions with another planet. At Jupiter-like distances its radius would roughly be the same as Jupiter.
The complete phase curve of this planet has been observed.
CoRoT-2b orbits its star approximately once every 1.7 days, and orbits the star in a
prograde direction close to the star's
equator
The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...
.
[
] Its parent star is a
G-type star, a bit cooler than the
Sun but more
active. It is located about 800
light-year
A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...
s from Earth.
It takes 125 minutes to
transit
Transit may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film
* ''Transit'' (1979 film), a 1979 Israeli film
* ''Transit'' (2005 film), a film produced by MTV and Staying-Alive about four people in countries in the world
* ''Transit'' (2006 film), a 2006 ...
its star.
As of August 2008, the CoRoT-2b spin-orbit angle (that is, the angle between the
equator
The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...
of the star and the plane of the planet
orbit
In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as a p ...
) was calculated by Bouchy ''et al.'' by means of the
Rossiter–McLaughlin effect with a value of +7.2 ± 4.5 degrees.
See also
*
List of extrasolar planets
These are lists of exoplanets. Most of these were discovered by the Kepler space telescope. There are an additional 2,054 potential exoplanets from Kepler's first mission yet to be confirmed, as well as 978 from its " Second Light" mission and ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:CoRoT-2
G-type main-sequence stars
Planetary systems with one confirmed planet
Planetary transit variables
Aquila (constellation)