New SuperWASP-South discoveries WASP-20b, WASP-42b, WASP-47b, WASP-49b, WASP-52b, WASP-53b, WASP-54b, WASP-55b, WASP-56b, WASP-57b, WASP-58b, WASP-59b, WASP-60b, WASP-61b, WASP-62b, WASP-63b, WASP-64b, WASP-65b, WASP-66b, WASP-67b, WASP-68b, WASP-69b, and WASP-70b were announced at the Extreme Solar Systems II conference, Wyoming, September 12th, 2011. This brings the total number of exoplanets discovered by SuperWASP to 65. Please see the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia at exoplanet.eu for more details whilst we update our planets page.
2010/05/20:Hubble Finds Star Eating a Planet
The hottest known planet in the Milky Way galaxy may also be its
shortest-lived world. The doomed planet is being eaten by its parent
star, according to observations made by a new instrument on NASA's
Hubble Space Telescope, the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS). The
planet may only have another 10 million years left before it is completely
devoured.
The planet, called WASP-12b, is so close to its sunlike star that it is
superheated to nearly 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit and stretched into a
football shape by enormous tidal forces. The atmosphere has ballooned to
about three times Jupiter's radius and is spilling material onto the star.
The planet is 40 percent more massive than Jupiter.
This effect of matter exchange between two stellar objects is commonly
seen in close binary star systems, but this is the first time it has
been so clearly seen for a planet.
For artist's illustrations and more information on WASP-12b, visit:
...and on CNN and ABC. For links to all the Wasp-12 TV appearances head to the media page.
2010/04/21
For commentary on the implications of the spin-orbit alignment statistics, see Greg Laughlin's blog on the subject: oklo.org
2010/04/13:New WASP Planets: Turning Planetary Theory Upside Down
The discovery of several new transiting exoplanets is announced today
at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting (NAM 2010) in Glasgow. When these new results were
combined with earlier observations of transiting exoplanets
astronomers were surprised to find that six out of a larger sample of
27 were found to be orbiting in the opposite direction to the rotation
of their host star — the exact reverse of what is seen in our own
Solar System. The new discoveries provide an unexpected and serious
challenge to current theories of planet formation. They also suggest
that systems with exoplanets of the type known as hot Jupiters are
unlikely to contain Earth-like planets.
More information about the new planets can be found
here
Full details can be found from the press releases: ESONAMLCOGT
Pre-publication copies of papers describing the new discoveries can be
found here, or at the Media page here.
2007/12/13:
The discovery of 3 new planets by SuperWASP has been voted the 6th most important scientific discovery of 2007 by Time: Click here.
2007/10/31:
The WASP consortium has announced the discovery of three new transiting planets. WASP-3b was discovered by the SuperWASP-North observatory and WASP-4b and WASP-5b are the first two planets to be discovered by SuperWASP-South. More information and details of the press-release can be found here.
2007/09/11:
The SuperWASP project was featured in the BBC2 series "The Cosmos - A beginners guide" presented by Adam Hart-Davis. More information can be found here or alternatively watch a short clip below (courtesy of Dave Rothery, OU):
(c) Copyright 2007 The Open University
You need the free Flash Player (version 7 or higher) to view this clip.
2006/09/26:
Members of SuperWASP attended the inaugural Transiting Planets
Conference held at the Max-Planck institute for Astronomy in
Heidelberg, Germany. The discovery of WASP-1b/2b was announced by
Rachel Street and talks were also given by Alexis Smith and Peter
Wheatley and posters presented by Becky Enoch/Rachel Street, Tim
Lister and David Wilson. Conference Dinner Photo
2006/09/26:
SuperWASP discovers two new transiting extra-solar planets.
Click here for more.
2006/09/07:
The annual SuperWASP meeting was held this year in Warwick organised
by Pete Wheatley. Discussions of current progress and future
plans were made together with details of recent follow-up results.
2006/06/26:
SuperWASP-South live status page launched.
Click here
2006/02/19:Science observations at SuperWASP-South begin. Click here for more.
2006/03/09: First light images from
SuperWASP-South now available. Click here for more.
2005/08/25: SuperWASP-South observatory near
completion. Click here for more.
2005/07/05: The annual SuperWASP meeting was
held at the Open University in Milton Keynes. The event is a great opportunity for consortium members to meet, review progress and discuss future developments.
Reports were given on the upgrades to the North observatory and the progress building the South observatory, which is now entering the final stages. Up to date information
on the South observatory can be found here. Some excellent demonstrations of the archive were given but the best news was the progress made
processing the 2004 data; it is expected our first transit candidates will emerge shortly. DW
2004/10/01: SuperWASP featured on BBC's 'Sky at Night'.
Click here to watch online.
2004/08: Location of SW-S decided -
SAAO, South Africa. See
Map for more details.
2004/04:
SW-N begins first observing season.
2004/04/16: SuperWASP featured on BBC News online.
Click here to read article.
2004/04/16: SW-N inauguration from ING office - click
here for images and video.
2003/07/18: SW-N up and running. First-light images available - see Gallery
for pictures.
2003/05/14: Construction of SW-N on La Palma begins.
2003/05/1-2: Third SuperWASP collaboration meeting. The minutes of our discussions are available from the WASP members only pages.
2002/09/11: Second SuperWASP meeting held in St. Andrews. (Notes on the discussions, and the agenda are available from the WASP members
only pages).
2002/08/08: Manufacture of arm on which cameras will be mounted completed; to be shipped to Torus soon.
Site on La Palma agreed, beginning application for planning permission.
Priced agreement with ING established.
Second science grade CCD camera (QUB sponsored) arrived.
2002/07/17: Construction of the enclosure has begun.
2002/06/28: First science-grade camera ready.
Final decision has been made regarding the site: SuperWASP will go to La Palma.
Torus report that the mount will be ready in early Sept. 2002.
2002/05/28: First on-sky exposures available from first camera using
engineering-grade CCD.
2002/05/early: First CCD camera delivered by Andor with engineering-grade CCD.
2002/04/10: Successful frame readout from first camera DAS (without camera).
