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Extrasolar planet List of extrasolar planets 300pxSize comparison of COROT-2b with Jupiter. CoRoT-Exo-2b
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COROT-2b (formerly known as COROT-Exo-2b[5]) is the second extrasolar planet to be detected by the French-led COROT mission, and orbits the star COROT-2 at a distance of 930 light years from Earth towards the constellation Aquila. Its discovery was announced on 20 December 2007.[6] After its discovery via the transit method, its mass was confirmed via the radial velocity method.

## Characteristics Edit

The planet is a large hot Jupiter, about 1.43 times the radius of Jupiter and approximately 3.3 times as massive. Its huge size is due to the intense heating from its parent star, which causes the outer layers of its atmosphere to bloat. The extremely large radius of the planet indicates that COROT-2b is really hot, estimated to be around 1500 K, even hotter than would be expected given its location close to its parent star. This fact may be a sign of tidal heating due to interactions with another planet.[7] At Jupiter-like distances its radius would roughly be the same as Jupiter.[8] The complete phase curve of this planet has been observed.[9]

COROT-2b orbits its star approximately once every 1.7 days, and orbits the star in a prograde direction close to the star's equator.[2] Its parent star is a G-type star, a bit cooler than the Sun but more active. It is located about 800 light-years from Earth.

It takes 125 minutes to transit its star.[10]

As of August 2008, the COROT-2b spin-orbit angle (that is, the angle between the equator of the star and the plane of the planet orbit) was calculated by Bouchy et al. by mean of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect[11] with a value of +7.2 ± 4.5 degrees.[2]

## References Edit

1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Alonso et al (2008). Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission. II. CoRoT-Exo-2b: a transiting planet around an active G star. Astronomy and Astrophysics 482 (3): L21–L24.
2. 2.0 2.1 2.2
3. The paper gives the semimajor axis as 6.70 ± 0.03 times the radius of the star, which is estimated at 0.902 ± 0.018 solar radii.
4. Calculated using Newtonian gravity: $\textstyle g=\frac{GM}{R^2}$
5. Template:Cite mailing list
6. COROT surprises a year after launch. Retrieved 2007-12-21.
7. CoRoT-exo-2 c?. Retrieved 2007-12-21.
8. (20 August 2006) Planetesimals to Brown Dwarfs: What is a Planet?. Ann.Rev.Earth Planet.Sci. 34: 193–216.
9. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011sptz.prop80044C
10. Predicted Transit Epochs: CoRoTExo2 b. TransitSearch (Oklo Corporation). Retrieved 2009-07-15.
11. Template:Cite arXiv