Hot Jupiters tagged posts

A planet that is about the size of Saturn, but with a temperature more like Earth’s, has an atmosphere rich in methane, according to a new study using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

Unlike the gas giant planets—Jupiter and Saturn—in Earth’s solar system, which are distant from the sun and therefore extremely cold, and so-called “hot Jupiters”—giant planets beyond the solar system that are s...

Why is the warm gas-giant exoplanet WASP-107 b so puffy? Two independent teams of researchers have an answer.

Data collected using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, combined with prior observations from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, show surprisingly little methane (CH4) in the planet’s atmosphere, indicating that the interior of WASP-107 b must be significantly hotter and the core much more massive than previously estimated.

The unexpectedly high temperature is thought to be a result of tidal heating caused by the planet’s slightly non-circular orbit, and can explain how WASP-107 b can be so inflated without resorting to extreme theories of how it formed.

The results, which were ...

The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) spacecraft is about the size of a cereal box. It has also recorded incredibly detailed measurements of the atmospheres of planets hundreds of light-years from Earth.

A spacecraft the size of a cereal box has collected precise measurements of the atmospheres of large and puffy planets called “hot Jupiters.” The findings, led by a team from the University of Colorado Boulder, could help reveal how the atmospheres around these and a host of other worlds are escaping into space.

The diminutive spacecraft, which measures just 14 inches in length, may be cute, but its scientific findings are anything but...

Planets can force their host stars to act younger than their age, according to a new study of multiple systems using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. This may be the best evidence to date that some planets apparently slow down the aging process for their host stars.

While the anti-aging property of “hot Jupiters” (that is, gas giant exoplanets that orbit a star at Mercury’s distance or closer) has been seen before, this result is the first time it has been systematically documented, providing the strongest test yet of this exotic phenomenon.

“In medicine, you need a lot of patients enrolled in a study to know if the effects are real or some sort of outlier,” said Ni...