Hot Jupiter

Hot Jupiter

Hot Jupiters (also called roaster planets, epistellar jovians, pegasids or pegasean planets) are a class of extrasolar planets whose characteristics are similar to Jupiter, however, with high surface temperatures because they orbit very close to their parent stars, between approximately 0.015 and 0.5 astronomical unit (2.2×10^6 and 75×10^6 km) of their parent stars, while Jupiter orbits its parent star (the Sun) at 5.2 astronomical units (780×10^6 km), causing low surface temperatures.

One of the most well-known hot Jupiters is 51 Pegasi b, nicknamed Bellerophon. Discovered in 1995, it was the first extrasolar planet found orbiting a Sun-like star.

Read more about Hot Jupiter:  General Characteristics, Terrestrial Planets in Systems With Hot Jupiters, Retrograde Orbit, Ultra-short-period Planets, Puffy Planets

Famous quotes containing the words hot and/or jupiter:

    Too hot to go to Church? What about Hell?
    Poster in Dayton, Ohio.

    I stand for the heart. To the dogs with the head! I had rather be a fool with a heart, than Jupiter Olympus with his head. The reason the mass of men fear God, and at bottom dislike Him, is because they rather distrust His heart, and fancy Him all brain like a watch.
    Herman Melville (1819–1891)