'Hot Jupiter' exoplanets may have formed very rapidly
Wednesday, September 16, 2015 - 11:00
in Astronomy & Space
Twenty years after they were first discovered, 'hot Jupiters', gas giant planets that orbit very close to their star, are still enigmatic objects. Astronomers have now shown that such bodies may only take several million years to migrate close to their newly formed star. The discovery should shed light on how solar systems like - or unlike - our own Solar System form and evolve over the course of their existence.