Hot Jupiter

Have you heard of the planets in our Solar System such as Earth, Mars, and Jupiter? Well, there are planets outside our Solar System which are called exoplanets. A hot Jupiter is an exoplanet that is similar to Jupiter but much closer to their star and has a very high temperature due to its proximity to their star.

Think of it like this, if you want to keep warm on a cold day, what do you do? You stay close to a heater. Similarly, the hot Jupiter stays close to their star, which is like a big heater. This makes the planet very hot, even hotter than our Earth.

Now, let's imagine you are on a swing. When you gently push yourself, you move slowly, and it takes a long time for you to travel a certain distance. But, when you give yourself a big push, you move much faster, and it takes much less time to cover the same distance. Similarly, hot Jupiters orbit their star much quicker than a planet like Earth because they are so close.

Hot Jupiters were a big surprise to scientists when they were first discovered. We thought that giant planets like Jupiter would only be found far away from their stars, where it's cold, but these planets are found extremely close to their star where it's hot, which was unexpected. This has taught us a lot about the diversity of exoplanets and how they can form in different ways.