Astronomers led by Dr Gracjan Maciejewski, Prof. of Nicolaus Copernicus University from the Institute of Astronomy of Toruń University observed tides on the star WASP-12, which is hundreds of light-years away from Solar system, caused by a massive planet orbiting it.

Discovered 12 years ago, the WASP-12 system consists of a star slightly hotter than the Sun and a planet almost twice as large as Jupiter. The planet orbits the star in a very tight orbit, with just over 26 hours for full turn.

– Three years ago I discovered that the planet is gradually falling on the star. All indications are that the tides that the planet evokes on the star are responsible for this. It turned out that these tidal waves are so strong that we are able to detect their movement and determine their height – says Prof. Maciejewski.

The observations were made with a world-class HARPS-N instrument installed on a 3.5 m Galileo Telescope located in the Canary Islands.
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