Detectability of shape deformation in short-period exoplanets

Understand

Short-period planets suffer from extreme tidal forces from their parent stars causing them to deform and attain non-spherical shapes.

• The planet shapes, modeled here as triaxial ellipsoids, can have an impact on the observed transit light curves and the planetary parameters derived.
• We investigate the detectability of tidal deformation in short-period planets from their transit light curves and the instrumental precision needed.
• We show how the detection of deformation from the light curve allows us to obtain an observational estimate of the second fluid Love number which gives valuable insight about the planet's internal structure.