WASP-19, formally named Wattle, is a

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

12.3

star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

about away, located in the Vela

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellati ...

of the southern hemisphere. This star has been found to host a transiting

hot Jupiter Hot Jupiters (sometimes called hot Saturns) are a class of gas giant exoplanets that are inferred to be physically similar to Jupiter (i.e. Jupiter analogue, Jupiter analogues) but that have very short orbital periods (). The close proximity to t ...

-type planet in a tight orbit. WASP-19 is older than the Sun, has a fraction of heavy elements above the solar abundance, and is rotating rapidly, being spun up by the tides raised by the giant planet on a close orbit.

Nomenclature

The designation ''WASP-19'' indicates that this was the 19th star found to have a planet by the

Wide Angle Search for Planets WASP or Wide Angle Search for Planets is an international consortium of several academic organisations performing an ultra-wide angle search for exoplanets using transit photometry. The array of robotic telescopes aims to Astronomical survey, s ...

. In August 2022, this planetary system was included among 20 systems to be named by the third

NameExoWorlds NameExoWorlds (also known as IAU NameExoWorlds) were various projects managed by the International Astronomical Union (I.A.U.) to encourage names to be submitted for astronomical objects, notably exoplanets. The accepted names would later be cons ...

project. The approved names were proposed by a team from Brandon Park Primary School in

Wheelers Hill Wheelers Hill is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 23 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Monash local government area. Wheelers Hill recorded a population of 20,652 at the . At 152m ...

(

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

), led by scientist Lance Kelly and teacher David Maierhofer and announced in June 2023. WASP-19 is named "Wattle" and its planet is named "Banksia", after the plant genera

Wattle Wattle or wattles may refer to: Plants *''Acacia sensu lato'', polyphyletic genus of plants commonly known as wattle, especially in Australian English **''Acacia'' ***Black wattle, common name for several species of acacia ***Golden wattle, ''A ...

(specifically the golden wattle ''

Acacia pycnantha ''Acacia pycnantha'', most commonly known as the golden wattle, is a tree of the family Fabaceae. It grows to a height of and has phyllodes (flattened leaf stalks) instead of true leaves. The profuse fragrant, golden flowers appear in late ...

'') and

Banksia ''Banksia'' is a genus of around 170 species of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes, and woody fruiting "cones" and head ...

(specifically the scarlet banksia '' Banksia coccinea'') respectively.

Planetary system

In December 2009, the

SuperWASP WASP or Wide Angle Search for Planets is an international consortium of several academic organisations performing an ultra-wide angle search for exoplanets using transit photometry. The array of robotic telescopes aims to survey the entire sky ...

project announced that a

type

exoplanet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992 around a pulsar, and the first detection around a main-sequence star was in 1995. A different planet, first det ...

WASP-19b WASP-19b, formally named Banksia, is an exoplanet, notable for possessing one of the shortest orbital periods of any known planetary body: days or approximately 18.932 hours. It has a mass close to that of Jupiter (1.15 Jupiter masses), but by c ...

, was orbiting very close to this star and with the shortest orbital period of any transiting exoplanet known at the time.

Nomenclature

Planetary system

References

Further reading