WASP-103 is an

F-type main-sequence star An F-type main-sequence star (F V) is a main-sequence, hydrogen-fusing star of spectral type F and luminosity class V. These stars have from 1.0 to 1.4 times the mass of the Sun and surface temperatures between 6,000 and 7,600 K.Tables VII ...

located 1,800 ± 100

light-years 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 ...

(550 ± 30

parsecs The parsec (symbol: pc) is a unit of length used to measure the large distances to astronomical objects outside the Solar System, approximately equal to or (au), i.e. . The parsec unit is obtained by the use of parallax and trigonometry, an ...

) away in the constellation

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Gr ...

. Its surface temperature is (K). The star's concentration of heavy elements is similar to that of the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

. WASP-103 is slightly younger than the Sun at 4 billion years. The star is too hot for

star spot Starspots are stellar phenomena, so-named by analogy with sunspots. Spots as small as sunspots have not been detected on other stars, as they would cause undetectably small fluctuations in brightness. The commonly observed starspots are in gene ...

s to form; instead, its surface is covered by numerous bright

faculae A facula (plural: faculae ), Latin for "little torch", is literally a "bright spot". The term has several common technical uses. It is used in planetary nomenclature for naming certain surface features of planets and moons,. and is also a type of ...

. The chromospheric activity of the star is elevated due to interaction with the giant planet on a close-in orbit. A multiplicity survey in 2015 found a suspected stellar companion to WASP-103, at a projected separation of .

Planetary system

In 2014 one

super-Jupiter A super-Jupiter is a gas giant exoplanet that is more massive than the planet Jupiter. For example, companions at the planet–brown dwarf borderline have been called super-Jupiters, such as around the star Kappa Andromedae. By 2011 there were ...

planet, named WASP-103b, was discovered by the

transit method Any planet is an extremely faint light source compared to its parent star. For example, a star like the Sun is about a billion times as bright as the reflected light from any of the planets orbiting it. In addition to the intrinsic difficulty o ...

. The planet is orbiting its host star in 22 hours and may be close to the limit of tidal disruption. Orbital decay was not detected by 2020. In early 2022, the planet was popularized because of its shape similar to a

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

. The planetary atmosphere contains water, and possibly

hydrogen cyanide Hydrogen cyanide, sometimes called prussic acid, is a chemical compound with the formula HCN and structure . It is a colorless, extremely poisonous, and flammable liquid that boils slightly above room temperature, at . HCN is produced on an ...

titanium(II) oxide Titanium(II) oxide ( Ti O) is an inorganic chemical compound of titanium and oxygen. It can be prepared from titanium dioxide and titanium metal at 1500 °C. It is non-stoichiometric in a range TiO0.7 to TiO1.3 and this is caused by vacancie ...

, or

sodium Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na (from Latin ''natrium'') and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable iso ...

. The planet has an elevated carbon to oxygen molar fraction of 0.9 or 1.35, therefore it is nearly certain to be a

carbon planet A carbon planet is a theoretical type of planet that contains more carbon than oxygen. Carbon is the fourth most abundant element in the universe by mass after hydrogen, helium, and oxygen. Marc Kuchner and Sara Seager coined the term "carbon ...

. The planetary equilibrium temperature is , although a big difference exists between the night side and day side. The dayside temperature is , while the night side temperature is .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:WASP-103 Hercules (constellation) F-type main-sequence stars Planetary transit variables Planetary systems with one confirmed planet J16371556+0711000