Find a planet as hot as the sun

New scientists have discovered the hottest planet ever known by humans. It has a temperature of up to 2,250 degrees Celsius, equivalent to the heat at the surface of the sun.

This planet, called WASP-12b , is about half the size of Jupiter. It travels around a star with an orbit equal to 1/40 of the distance between the Earth and the sun. It only takes a day to move around its own star, WASP-12b is the planet with the shortest orbit time.

Despite the terrible temperature, the WASP-12b record time may not be long because astronomers have found a planet with a temperature of 2,040 degrees Celsius.

Two telescopes - one in Spain's Canary Islands and one in South Africa - found WASP-12b. They are designed to look for signs of planets passing through the Earth.

Leslie Hebb, an astronomer from St Andrews University (Scotland), said that finding WASP-12b is very important because normally the extrasolar planets take at least 3 days to reach the orbit.

" I was surprised that the time could be shorter than 3 days ," Leslie said.

The WASP-12b planet only takes a day to spin around its star.
(Photo: Foxnews)