Search Publications

Doomed Worlds. I. No New Evidence for Orbital Decay in a Long-term Survey of 43 Ultrahot Jupiters

Huang, Chelsea X.; Sickafoose, Amanda A.; Jackson, Brian +8 more

Ultrahot Jupiters (UHJs) are likely doomed by tidal forces to undergo orbital decay and eventual disruption by their stars, but the timescale over which this process unfolds is unknown. We present results from a long-term project to monitor UHJ transits. We recovered WASP-12 b's orbital decay rate of ms yr^‑1, in agreement with prior wor…