For the past 20 years, exoplanets known as ‘hot Jupiters’ have puzzled astronomers. These giant planets orbit 100 times closer to their host stars than Jupiter does to the Sun, which increases their surface temperatures. But how and when in their history did they migrate so close to their star? Now, an international team of astronomers has announced the discovery of a very young hot Jupiter orbiting in the immediate vicinity of a star that is barely 2 million years old – the stellar equivalent of a week-old infant...
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Astronomers have found there are far more planets of the hot Jupiter type than expected in a cluster of stars called Messier 67...
Read MoreWater is a hot topic in the study of exoplanets, including “hot Jupiters,” whose masses are similar to that of Jupiter, but which are much closer to their parent star than Jupiter is to the sun. They can reach a scorching 2,000F, meaning any water they host would take the form of water vapor. Astronomers have found many hot Jupiters with water in their atmospheres, but others appear to have none...
Read MoreAstronomers have used Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescope to study the atmospheres of 10 hot, Jupiter-sized exoplanets in detail, the largest number of such planets ever studied. The team was able to discover why some of these worlds seem to have less water than expected—a long-standing mystery.
To date, astronomers have discovered nearly 2000 planets orbiting other stars. Some are known as hot Jupiters, hot, gaseous planets with characteristics similar to those of Jupiter...
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