Finding out what makes hot Jupiters tick

The team’s simulations of hot Jupiters—which were the first to include magnetic fields—along with their massive star simulations, can help astronomers interpret data collected from space-based observatories like NASA’s Kepler, Spitzer, and Hubble telescopes. For example, the team’s findings may help explain some puzzling observations, such as why planets circling cool stars tend to have orbits that align with the star’s spin direction while those around hot stars often have misaligned orbits; and why many hot Jupiters are bigger and less dense than expected given their mass, even accounting for their extreme temperatures. The simulation results also reveal how magnetic effects can influence winds on these planets, a finding that could provide a method for estimating the planets’ magnetic fields based on observations of their atmospheres.