WASP-121 b: a hot Jupiter close to tidal disruption transiting an active F star

We present the discovery by the WASP-South survey of WASP-121 b, a new remarkable short-period transiting hot Jupiter. The planet has a mass of 1.183_{-0.062}^{+0.064} M_Jup, a radius of 1.865 ± 0.044 R_Jup, and transits every 1.274 9255_{-0.000 0025}^{+0.000 0020} days an active F6-type main-sequence star (V = 10.4, 1.353_{-0.079}^{+0.080} M_⊙, 1.458 ± 0.030 R_⊙, T_eff = 6460 ± 140 K). A notable property of WASP-121 b is that its orbital semimajor axis is only ∼1.15 times larger than its Roche limit, which suggests that the planet is close to tidal disruption. Furthermore, its large size and extreme irradiation (∼7.1 10⁹ erg s^-1 cm^-2) make it an excellent target for atmospheric studies via secondary eclipse observations. Using the TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope, we indeed detect its emission in the z^'-band at better than ∼4σ, the measured occultation depth being 603 ± 130 ppm. Finally, from a measurement of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect with the CORALIE spectrograph, we infer a sky-projected spin-orbit angle of 257.8°_{-5.5°}^{+5.3°}. This result may suggest a significant misalignment between the spin axis of the host star and the orbital plane of the planet. If confirmed, this high misalignment would favour a migration of the planet involving strong dynamical events with a third body.