Chandra Release - November 2, 2022

Visual Description: Hot Jupiters

Today's release features an artist's digital illustration of a gas giant exoplanet closely orbiting a large fiery star, with a second star off in the distance. 

 

The large fiery star occupies our left side of the horizontal image, extending well beyond the edges of the frame. Swirling orange and yellow fire covers the mottled surface. Wispy radiation streaked with tendril-like flares surrounds the star like a blanket of golden yellow mist.

 

The considerably smaller gas exoplanet appears beside the fiery host star, at our lower right. The exoplanet's streaked, muted surface is largely obscured by a steel blue cloud. This cloud, the exoplanet's atmosphere, is being blown to our right, blasted away by the host star's intense radiation.

 

In this illustration, the second star appears to be much smaller, as it's located in the distance at our upper right, far from the gas exoplanet. This star is bright yellow in color, marbled with darker patches. No blanket of radiation or tendril-like flares are present on the surface of this more distant star.

 

This image illustrates observations made by teams at the Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton. Scientists believe that the presence of a gas giant exoplanet, like the one at our lower right, can potentially influence its host star by tidal forces. These forces cause the host star, like the large fiery star on our left, to rotate more rapidly, producing more X-rays and flares than its distant companion star.