© NASA
For the first time, astronomers from MIT and elsewhere have observed
a star pulsing in response to its orbiting planet.
The star, which goes by the name HAT-P-2, is about 400 light years from Earth and is circled by a gas giant measuring eight times the mass of Jupiter - one of the most massive exoplanets known today. The planet, named HAT-P-2b, tracks its star in a highly eccentric orbit, flying extremely close to and around the star, then hurtling far out before eventually circling back around.
The researchers analyzed more than 350 hours of observations of HAT-P-2 taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, and found that
the star's brightness appears to oscillate ever so slightly every 87 minutes. In particular, the star seems to vibrate at exact harmonics, or multiples of the planet's orbital frequency - the rate at which the planet circles its star.
The precisely timed pulsations have lead the researchers to believe that, contrary to most theoretical model-based predictions of exoplanetary behavior,
HAT-P-2b may be massive enough to periodically distort its star, making the star's molten surface flare, or pulse, in response.
Comment: In light of this discovery, how difficult would it be to conceive a binary star system with the junior partner on a highly eccentric orbit 'discharging' its senior capacitor to send massive amounts of energy through the whole system?
Maybe they ought to think about what OUR sun is doing, and why it's doing it!
Solar minimum: The sun is getting quieter... and its rotation is slowing down