US, WASHINGTON (ORDO NEWS) — Hot Jupiters are exoplanets, the size of which is approximately equal to Jupiter, but they rotate around their respective stars at close distances – in some cases it takes only 18 Earth hours to complete a full orbit. This means that they tend to be extremely hot – hence the name.
There are many questions left about how they formed, or how they move over time. Do they approach or run away from their star during their life cycle?
A new study published today in the Astronomical Journal outlines the new discovery of a very young, hot Jupiter-class exoplanet called HIP 67522 b, 490 light-years from Earth.
His well-studied parent star is only 17 million years old, making the newly discovered planet several million years younger. This makes him the youngest of its kind ever found and can shed light on the unique characteristics of the hot Jupiters.
The discovery was made using NASA‘s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which can measure the brightness drop coming from a star when a planet passes between us and its star.
HIP 67522 b is about ten times the diameter of the Earth, which suggests that it is a planet with gas dominance – just like on Jupiter.
Astronomers speculate that there may be three different reasons why the hot Jupiters are so close to their star. Either they formed right next to the star, or they slowly approached their star over time.
Their internal migration might begin when the planet was still protected by a disk of gas and dust that surrounds the newly-born star system. Or – the third hypothesis – the gravity of other planets could bring them closer together later in the life of the stellar system.
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