• Home
  • Sky Science - Part 1
  • Sky Science - Part 2
  • Sky Science - Part 3
  • Sky Science - Part 4 (UC)
  • Sky Science - Part 5 (UC)
  • Sky Science - Part 6
  • Sky Science - Part 7
  • Sky Science - Part 8 (UC)
  • Sky Science - Part 9 (UC)
  • Sky Science - Part 10 (UC)
  • Sky Science - Part 11 (UC)
  • Solar System
    • Sun
    • Mercury
    • Venus
    • Earth
    • Moon
    • Mars
    • Asteroids
    • Meteors & Meteorites
    • Jupiter
    • Saturn
    • Uranus
    • Neptune
    • Pluto and Charon
    • Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud
    • Comets
  • Stars
    • Binary & Multiple Stars
    • Black Holes
    • Brown Dwarfs
    • Neutron Stars
    • Star Clusters
    • White Dwarfs
  • Constellations
    • Andromeda
    • Orion
    • Perseus
  • Documents & Resources
    • Ask an Astronomer Blog
    • Ask An Astronomer 1
    • Ask An Astronomer 2
    • AstroViewer
    • Film Festival
    • ISS Tracker
    • Sky Science Quiz
    • Tonight's Sky
    • Top 50 Links
  • Under Construction (UC)
    • Eclipses
    • Exoplanets
    • Galaxies
    • Milky Way
    • Nebulae
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • Sky Science - Part 1
  • Sky Science - Part 2
  • Sky Science - Part 3
  • Sky Science - Part 4 (UC)
  • Sky Science - Part 5 (UC)
  • Sky Science - Part 6
  • Sky Science - Part 7
  • Sky Science - Part 8 (UC)
  • Sky Science - Part 9 (UC)
  • Sky Science - Part 10 (UC)
  • Sky Science - Part 11 (UC)
  • Solar System
    • Sun
    • Mercury
    • Venus
    • Earth
    • Moon
    • Mars
    • Asteroids
    • Meteors & Meteorites
    • Jupiter
    • Saturn
    • Uranus
    • Neptune
    • Pluto and Charon
    • Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud
    • Comets
  • Stars
    • Binary & Multiple Stars
    • Black Holes
    • Brown Dwarfs
    • Neutron Stars
    • Star Clusters
    • White Dwarfs
  • Constellations
    • Andromeda
    • Orion
    • Perseus
  • Documents & Resources
    • Ask an Astronomer Blog
    • Ask An Astronomer 1
    • Ask An Astronomer 2
    • AstroViewer
    • Film Festival
    • ISS Tracker
    • Sky Science Quiz
    • Tonight's Sky
    • Top 50 Links
  • Under Construction (UC)
    • Eclipses
    • Exoplanets
    • Galaxies
    • Milky Way
    • Nebulae
  • Twitter

What is a Hot Jupiter?

11/30/2015

0 Comments

 
Olivia is a grade 6 student from Calgary and she asked...

What is a Hot Jupiter?

When extrasolar planets first started to be discovered, about 20 years ago, calculations showed that many of them were big, like Jupiter. However, unlike Jupiter, these planets were orbiting extremely close to their stars and for that reason they were really hot. Several of these Jupiter-sized extrasolar planets were discovered early on and soon they formed a distinct category within the larger family of extrasolar planets. This category, or subclass, as astronomers refer to it, became known as the "Hot Jupiters" and that term is used to describe any Jupiter-sized extrasolar planet that is really hot, due to its close proximity to its parent star.

Picture
An artist impression of a "Hot Jupiter" extrasolar planet orbiting its parent star.
Picture
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    About Me

    This blog is written by James Durbano. Currently, I am the Director of the Big Sky Observatory and I'm also the owner and operator of the awesome AstroDome Planetarium.

    ​I've been keeping an eye on the sky for more than 30 years and during this time, I've shared many wonderful celestial sights with folks, both young and not so young.

    Taking photographs of the night sky is something that I enjoy doing. I'm always learning new things about my DSLR camera. Some of my photographs have even been published in SkyNews Magazine.


    Archives

    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015


    Categories

    All
    Biggest
    Exoplanets
    Stars


    RSS Feed

Brought to you by the AstroDome Planetarium, Astronomer 4 Hire, and the Big Sky Astronomical Society
Sky Science
  • Home
  • Sky Science - Part 1
  • Sky Science - Part 2
  • Sky Science - Part 3
  • Sky Science - Part 4 (UC)
  • Sky Science - Part 5 (UC)
  • Sky Science - Part 6
  • Sky Science - Part 7
  • Sky Science - Part 8 (UC)
  • Sky Science - Part 9 (UC)
  • Sky Science - Part 10 (UC)
  • Sky Science - Part 11 (UC)
  • Solar System
    • Sun
    • Mercury
    • Venus
    • Earth
    • Moon
    • Mars
    • Asteroids
    • Meteors & Meteorites
    • Jupiter
    • Saturn
    • Uranus
    • Neptune
    • Pluto and Charon
    • Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud
    • Comets
  • Stars
    • Binary & Multiple Stars
    • Black Holes
    • Brown Dwarfs
    • Neutron Stars
    • Star Clusters
    • White Dwarfs
  • Constellations
    • Andromeda
    • Orion
    • Perseus
  • Documents & Resources
    • Ask an Astronomer Blog
    • Ask An Astronomer 1
    • Ask An Astronomer 2
    • AstroViewer
    • Film Festival
    • ISS Tracker
    • Sky Science Quiz
    • Tonight's Sky
    • Top 50 Links
  • Under Construction (UC)
    • Eclipses
    • Exoplanets
    • Galaxies
    • Milky Way
    • Nebulae
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • Sky Science - Part 1
  • Sky Science - Part 2
  • Sky Science - Part 3
  • Sky Science - Part 4 (UC)
  • Sky Science - Part 5 (UC)
  • Sky Science - Part 6
  • Sky Science - Part 7
  • Sky Science - Part 8 (UC)
  • Sky Science - Part 9 (UC)
  • Sky Science - Part 10 (UC)
  • Sky Science - Part 11 (UC)
  • Solar System
    • Sun
    • Mercury
    • Venus
    • Earth
    • Moon
    • Mars
    • Asteroids
    • Meteors & Meteorites
    • Jupiter
    • Saturn
    • Uranus
    • Neptune
    • Pluto and Charon
    • Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud
    • Comets
  • Stars
    • Binary & Multiple Stars
    • Black Holes
    • Brown Dwarfs
    • Neutron Stars
    • Star Clusters
    • White Dwarfs
  • Constellations
    • Andromeda
    • Orion
    • Perseus
  • Documents & Resources
    • Ask an Astronomer Blog
    • Ask An Astronomer 1
    • Ask An Astronomer 2
    • AstroViewer
    • Film Festival
    • ISS Tracker
    • Sky Science Quiz
    • Tonight's Sky
    • Top 50 Links
  • Under Construction (UC)
    • Eclipses
    • Exoplanets
    • Galaxies
    • Milky Way
    • Nebulae
  • Twitter