Transit and Occultation Data Confirm a Decaying Orbit for WASP-12b

WASP-12b is the first reported hot Jupiter whose orbital period appears to be decreasing with time. This phenomenon can be interpreted using two models from earlier research: the decay of its orbit or the apsidal precession. This work chose the latest 118 transit and 6 occultation photometric observations conducted by TESS in Sectors 20, 43, 44, 45, 71, 72. They were combined with previous data to analyze the relationship between the orbit number, the mid-time of transit, and the mid-time of occultations (averaged over entire sectors to boost the signal-to-noise ratio), which favored the decay model with BIC = 104.09. Our value of decay rate , and the reduced tidal quality factor when interpreting the decay as tidal orbital decay, are both aligned with earlier studies and suggest that the orbit of WASP-12b is in a state of rapid decay. Future observations and theoretical work are necessary to further explain the physical processes driving this decay and to predict the end of life of WASP-12b.