and all their host have I commanded.
Isaiah 45:12
"Nothing has been more upsetting to comfortable theory than the discovery of hot Jupiters around other stars.
The hot Jupiters, in particular, put shame on the face of planetary scientists whose models went kaput with the discovery of these fast-moving giants. The penitent weeps:
"And it wasn’t just any type of exoplanet that kicked off this re-think; it was the hot Jupiters. Imagine: a planet more massive than the largest one in our solar system and 10 times warmer, a monstrous beast of hydrogen and other elements, complete with swirling bands of gas and a rich, dynamic atmosphere, orbiting closer its star than Mercury orbits the sun. In some solar systems, such a planet orbits so quickly that its year is shorter than the Earth’s day. That means these worlds can whip around their parent stars in hours. The physics involved can reduce the most hardened scientist to tears."
Dr. Sutter tries to regain his composure. Maybe a little humor will help.
"When astronomers spotted the first hot Jupiter (51 Pegasi b, the first exoplanet to be found around a sunlike star, no less), the reaction was mostly, “Ha ha, mother nature, that’s cute. You got us this time, but no more funny business, OK?”
But then another hot Jupiter was found. And another. Then half a dozen more. They went from goofy oddballs to … normalcy. For a while, it started to look like our own solar system was the weird one.
**Maybe they should just be called “regular Jupiters,” and ours re-named a “cold Jupiter?”
CEH
