UW Space Place Guest Presentation

A hot Jupiter is a planet the size of Jupiter orbiting very close to the surface of its host star. Despite the first planet of this type being discovered almost 30 years ago, we still don’t understand exactly how hot Jupiters form and why their orbits look the way they do. Prof. Juliette Becker, UW-Madison Astronomy Dept., will review the three ideas about how hot Jupiters can form – and explain the reason why we don’t have an answer to this question yet despite decades of work by astronomers!