About this episode
We dive into WASP-18b, an ultra-hot Jupiter with a mass around ten Jupiters that orbits its star in roughly 1.9 days and skims about 0.02 AU. Its fate is to spiral into its star in under a million years. We unpack why the planet is so extreme—tidal decay, dayside temperatures near 3,000 K, and the atmospheric puzzles JWST helped reveal—including two distinct thermal regions and the fate of its water vapor. Then we explore what this means for tidal physics, planetary atmospheres, and our broader understanding of how fast such worlds can die.
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