J/AJ/154/4ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/154/4doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.51540004CDSPatra K.C.Winn J.N.Holman M.J.Yu L.Deming D.Dai F.2017-09-04T08:29:17Z2017-08-09T11:58:26ZCDS support team

CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France

cds-question@unistra.frsolar-system-planetsmultiple-starsWe present new transit and occultation times for the hot Jupiter WASP-12b. The data are compatible with a constant period derivative: P.=-29+/-3ms/yr and P/P.=3.2Myr. However, it is difficult to tell whether we have observed orbital decay or a portion of a 14-year apsidal precession cycle. If interpreted as decay, the star's tidal quality parameter Q_star_ is about 2*10^5^. If interpreted as precession, the planet's Love number is 0.44+/-0.10. Orbital decay appears to be the more parsimonious model: it is favored by {Delta}_{chi}^2^_=5.5 despite having two fewer free parameters than the precession model. The decay model implies that WASP-12 was discovered within the final ~0.2% of its existence, which is an unlikely coincidence but harmonizes with independent evidence that the planet is nearing disruption. Precession does not invoke any temporal coincidence, but it does require some mechanism to maintain an eccentricity of {approx}0.002 in the face of rapid tidal circularization. To distinguish unequivocally between decay and precession will probably require a few more years of monitoring. Particularly helpful will be occultation timing in 2019 and thereafter.2017AJ....154....4Phttps://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/AJ/154/4CatalogResearchIsServedByTAP VizieR generic servicerelated-toJ/A+A/588/L6 : WASP-12 transit light curves (Maciejewski+ 2016)J/ApJ/785/126 : HIRES radial velocity measurements (Knutson+, 2014)J/A+A/551/A108 : Multi-site obs. of WASP-12 b transit (Maciejewski+, 2013)J/ApJ/757/161 : Spectroscopy of 56 exoplanet host stars (Torres+, 2012)J/ApJ/757/18 : Radial velocities for hot Jupiter host stars (Albrecht+, 2012)J/ApJ/727/125 : Two secondary eclipses of WASP-12b with Spitzer (Campo+, 2011)J/AJ/141/179 : Transits of TrES-4b, HAT-P-3b and WASP-12b (Chan+, 2011)J/ApJ/720/872 : A spectropolarimetric analysis of WASP-12 (Fossati+, 2010)https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.htmlhttps://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/AJ/154/4https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/AJ/154/4http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/AJ/154/4https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/AJ/154/4https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/AJ/154/4http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/AJ/154/4GETtext/xml+votablehttps://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tapdefaultJ/AJ/154/4/table1Transit and occultation timesRefReferencemeta.ref;pos.framecharE[-1640/1370] Epoch numbermeta.id;meta.mainintrecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintEventEvent (occ=occultation, tra=transit)meta.notecharBJDBarycentric Julian Date (BJD) of midtransit time (BJD_TDB_)dtime.epochdoublee_BJD[0.0001/0.0022] Uncertainty in BJDdstat.errordoublef_Ref[ab] Flag on Reference (a or b) (1)meta.codechar