HIGHLIGHTES

WASP-103b is a near companion to an F-type star.

WASP-103b orbits its host star at a distance of only 20,000 light-years.

The Sun, Earth's host star, is 93 million miles away.

WHY IN NEWS

Except for Jupiter, which has multiple rings surrounding it, most of the planets we know are shaped like orbs, just like Earth. Jupiter, too, appears to be a globe. But are all planets, especially planets that are beyond our solar system, spherical in shape? The answer is no, according to a recent scientific paper, which claims that some planets could have a potato-like appearance. Researchers have identified a planet named WASP-103b that is 1,500 light-years away from Earth and has the shape of a potato or a rugby ball, according to the researchers.

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But why is it fashioned in such an odd way? WASP-103b is said to be orbiting an F-type star that is larger and more massive than our Sun, according to astronomers. The planet is also quite huge, roughly one-and-a-half Jupiter's size. The planet's unique shape is due to its close closeness to its host star. The study, which was published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, stated that WASP-103b is only 20,000 miles from its mother star, which could cause tidal pressures to drag it into an unusual form. The distance between Earth and its home star, the Sun, is approximately 93 million miles.

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The Earth orbits the Sun once every year, and some other planetary systems in the Known Universe take at least just few summers or many months to make one revolution of the Sun. Some outer planets, known as 'hot jupiters,' however, orbit their home stars in a matter of days or hours. WASP-103b has a short orbital period of only 22 hours.'It's astonishing that Cheops was able to reveal such a minute deformation,' said Jacques Laskar, one of the study's co-authors.To come to the conclusion about WASP-103b's rugby ball shape, the researchers examined data from NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, as well as data from ESA's CHEOPS satellite.