Top view of the orbit of the exoplanet WASP-121 b around its star (IMAGE)
Caption
Top view of the orbit of the exoplanet WASP-121 b around its star. The planet’s rotation is synchronized to its orbit, both taking about 30 hours to complete. As a result, the planet constantly faces the star with the same side producing distinct day and night sides. The transition zones between those hemispheres are the morning and evening regions. Due to the planet’s proximity to the central star of only 1.9 stellar diameters, the planet rotates by about 30 degrees during its transit.
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MPIA (CC BY 4.0)
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CC BY