WASP-15, also named Nyamien, 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 ...

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth make ...

located about 1000

light-year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 101 ...

s away in the constellation

Centaurus Centaurus is a bright constellation in the southern sky. One of the largest constellations, Centaurus was included among the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations. I ...

. The star, which is more massive, larger, hotter, and more luminous than the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared rad ...

, is also less metal-rich than the Sun. WASP-15 has one known planet in its orbit, WASP-15b; the planet is a

Hot Jupiter Hot Jupiters (sometimes called hot Saturns) are a class of gas giant exoplanets that are inferred to be physically similar to Jupiter but that have very short orbital periods (). The close proximity to their stars and high surface-atmosphere temp ...

with an anomalously high radius, a phenomenon which may be explained by the presence of an internal heat source. The star was first observed by 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, ...

program in 2006; future measurements in 2007 and 2008, as well as follow-up observations and analysis, eventually led to the discovery of WASP-15b using the

transit method Any planet is an extremely faint light source compared to its parent star. For example, a star like the Sun is about a billion times as bright as the reflected light from any of the planets orbiting it. In addition to the intrinsic difficulty o ...

and

Doppler spectroscopy Doppler spectroscopy (also known as the radial-velocity method, or colloquially, the wobble method) is an indirect method for finding extrasolar planets and brown dwarfs from radial-velocity measurements via observation of Doppler shifts in t ...

Observational history

WASP-15 was first observed from the

South African Astronomical Observatory South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) is the national centre for optical and infrared astronomy in South Africa. It was established in 1972. The observatory is run by the National Research Foundation of South Africa. The facility's func ...

, which hosts the planet-searching

program in the Southern Hemisphere (WASP-South), and was catalogued by its brightness and its coordinates in the sky. This information was captured first with one camera field between May 4, 2006 and July 17, 2006, and later again using two overlapping camera fields between January 31, 2007 to July 7, 2007 and from January 31, 2008 to May 29, 2008. Data processing led to the acquisition of 24,943 data points that suggested that some body transited, or crossed in front of (and briefly dimmed), WASP-15 every 3.7520 days. Approximately eleven transits, full and partial, were observed. Use of the EulerCAM photometer at the

La Silla Observatory La Silla Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Chile with three telescopes built and operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). Several other telescopes are located at the site and are partly maintained by ESO. The observatory is ...

's 1.2 m

Leonhard Euler Telescope Leonhard Euler Telescope, or the Swiss EULER Telescope, is a national, fully automatic reflecting telescope, built and operated by the Geneva Observatory. It is located at an altitude of at ESO's La Silla Observatory site in the Chilean Norte ...

on March 29, 2008 provided further evidence for an exoplanet by better defining the transit's curve. Later, the

CORALIE spectrograph Leonhard Euler Telescope, or the Swiss EULER Telescope, is a national, fully automatic reflecting telescope, built and operated by the Geneva Observatory. It is located at an altitude of at ESO's La Silla Observatory site in the Chilean Nor ...

(also on the Euler telescope) between March 6, 2008 and July 17, 2008 used

to collect 21 radial velocity measurements. Analysis confirmed the presence of a planet that was later designated WASP-15b.

Characteristics

WASP-15 is an F-type star with a

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different element ...

that is 1.18 times larger than the Sun, and a

radius In classical geometry, a radius ( : radii) of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The name comes from the latin ''radius'', meaning ray but also the ...

that is 1.477 bigger. It is, thus, larger, more massive, and more diffuse than the Sun. The star has an

effective temperature The effective temperature of a body such as a star or planet is the temperature of a black body that would emit the same total amount of electromagnetic radiation. Effective temperature is often used as an estimate of a body's surface temperature ...

of 6300 K, making it also hotter than the Sun. With a

metallicity In astronomy, metallicity is the abundance of elements present in an object that are heavier than hydrogen and helium. Most of the normal physical matter in the Universe is either hydrogen or helium, and astronomers use the word ''"metals"'' as ...

of e/H= -0.17, WASP-15 has 0.676 times the amount of iron than the Sun, and has consistently lower levels of other metals, including sodium, magnesium, silicon, calcium, and scandium. In addition, WASP-15 is most likely younger than the Sun, as it has an estimated age of 3.9 billion years. WASP-15 is approximately 3.09 times more

luminous Luminous may refer to: * Luminous flame, a flame emitting visible light Music * Luminous (group), a South Korean boy band * ''Luminous'' (EP), an EP by Cesium 137 * ''Luminous'' (John Hicks and Elise Wood album), 1985–88 * Luminous (The Hor ...

than the Sun. WASP-15 is located at a distance of approximately 290

parsec The parsec (symbol: pc) is a unit of length used to measure the large distances to astronomical objects outside the Solar System, approximately equal to or (au), i.e. . The parsec unit is obtained by the use of parallax and trigonometry, a ...

s (900

light year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...

s), and it has an estimated

apparent magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object's apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object's li ...

of 10.9. It is, thus, not visible from Earth with the unaided eye.

Planetary system

WASP-15 is host to the planet WASP-15b. The planet, which is a

, orbits its host star at a distance of 0.0499 AU every 3.7520656 days. WASP-15b was noted by its discoverers because of its anomalously high radius, which is 1.428 times that of Jupiter, compared to its mass, which is 0.542 times the size of Jupiter. WASP-15b's large radius cannot be explained solely by its proximity to its star, suggesting that some form of

tidal heating Tidal heating (also known as tidal working or tidal flexing) occurs through the tidal friction processes: orbital and rotational energy is dissipated as heat in either (or both) the surface ocean or interior of a planet or satellite. When an objec ...

or other internal heating mechanism is also involved.

Naming

WASP-15, and its planet WASP-15b, were chosen as part of the 2019

NameExoWorlds NameExoWorlds (also known as IAU NameExoWorlds) is the name of various projects managed by the International Astronomical Union (I.A.U.) to encourage names to be submitted for astronomical objects, which would later be considered for official ad ...

campaign organised by the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach ...

, which assigned each country a star and planet to be named. WASP-15 was assigned to

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

. The winning proposal named the star Nyamien refers to the supreme creator deity of

Akan Akan may refer to: People and languages *Akan people, an ethnic group in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire *Akan language Akan () is a Central Tano languages, Central Tano language and the principal native language of the Akan people of Ghana, spoken ...

mythology, and the planet Asye refers to the Earth goddess of Akan mythology.

References

External links