The transiting exoplanet WASP-12b is located some 870 light-years from Earth. This extremely irradiated planet orbits its Sun-like, G0 parent star in just over 26 hours, resulting in a dayside temperature of ~2,700 K (4,400 F).  The tidal forces exerted by its star are sufficiently strong to distort the exoplanet into a prolate shape and […]

The UCF Exoplanets Group is pleased to announce the discovery of two new transiting planet candidates (UCF-1.01 and UCF-1.02) orbiting the red-dwarf star GJ 436.  The objects are 2/3 the diameter of Earth, making them the closest rocky exoplanets and the only ones within 100 light years.  They were found by UCF Graduate Student Kevin Stevenson while he […]

The GJ 436 system is located only 33 light-years away, in the constellation Leo.  Around a relatively small M-dwarf star, orbits the Neptune-sized planet GJ 436b.  This extrasolar planet completes one revolution in just 2.64 days, following an elliptical path that takes it ~10 times closer to its parent star than Mercury’s orbit does to the […]