Similar in size to Jupiter, these gas-dominated planets orbit extremely close to their parent stars, circling them in as few as 18 hours. Kepler-7b has roughly the same density as Styrofoam. That made hot Jupiters easier to detect in the early days of planet hunting using the radial velocity method. These large planets make such tight orbits that they cause a pronounced “wobble” in their stars, tugging their stellar hosts this way and that, and causing a measurable shift in the spectrum of light from the stars. Hot Jupiters, for instance, were among the first exoplanet types found – gas giants like Jupiter, yes, but orbiting so close to their stars that their temperatures soar into the thousands of degrees (Fahrenheit or Celsius). Gas giants nearer to their stars are often called “hot Jupiters.” More variety is hidden within these broad categories. Gas giants, like Jupiter or Saturn in our solar system, are composed mostly of helium and/or hydrogen. But over the last 25 years, the discovery of more than 4,000 exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system, changed all that. Seeing, Believing: 15 Years of Exoplanet Imagesįor most of human history our understanding of how planets form and evolve was based on the eight (or nine) planets in our solar system.
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