The Envelopes of Hot Jupiters As a Key to the Understanding of Physics and Evolution of Extrasolar Planets

The idea of distant stars possessing planets dates back to the epoch of Giordano Bruno, but we managed to prove it only recently. Prior to the discovery of first extrasolar planets we believed that other planetary systems should be similar to our own Solar System with several gas giant planets in outer orbits and a number of smaller rocky planets rotating close to the host star. However, one of first discovered planets unexpectedly appeared to be half the mass of Jupiter and orbiting its host star at a distance of about one seventh of the distance between Mercury and the Sun. By now there have been a large number of such planets discovered, all of them are now known as “hot Jupiters”.

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