What is WASP-12b?

WASP-12b is a super-hot planet that’s zooming around its star like a race car on a track.

Imagine you’re sitting on a sunny beach, and someone turns on a blowtorch right next to you. That's kind of what life is like for WASP-12b, except instead of a blowtorch, it has a star burning super close by. Because of this, the planet gets so hot that its surface can be over 2,000 degrees Celsius, hotter than some volcanoes on Earth!

WASP-12b is much bigger than Earth, about twice as wide! But it’s not just big; it's also really fast. It goes around its star in less than a day, which means its year is shorter than your lunch break.

Because it's so close to its star, the planet gets squished by gravity, kind of like when you press your face into a big marshmallow and it flattens out. This makes WASP-12b look more like a giant egg than a perfect ball.

It’s one of the first planets we found that's so close to its star, and studying it helps us learn how other planets, maybe even ones with life, can form around stars like our Sun.