What is an "Epistellar Jovian Exoplanet"?
These are the planets of roughly Jupiter mass that have been
found near the
stars 51 Pegasi, 55 Cancri, Tau Bootes and Upsilon Andromidae with orbits that
are within 0.1 Astronomical Units of the main star. These are also called
'blow torch orbits' because the planetary temperatures get up to 1000 F during
portions of the orbits. Tau Bootis C orbits within 8 stellar radii of the star
and must be a very weird world indeed!
For more details about the recently detected planets visit Planet Search.
Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald
Return to
Ask the Astronomer.