The Planet That Shouldn’t Exist… But Does

Artist impression of a hot Jupiter orbiting close to its host star (Credit : ESO/M. Kornmesser)

Hot Jupiters are the bullies of the planetary world. These colossal gas giants orbit impossibly close to their stars and their gravity is so overwhelming that anything nearby gets scattered, swallowed, or flung into oblivion. Finding a smaller planet surviving inside a hot Jupiter’s orbit should be virtually impossible. Yet 190 light years away, that’s exactly what astronomers have found.

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