Young giant planet offers clues to formation of exotic worlds

For most of human history our understanding of how planets form and evolve was based on the eight (or nine) planets in our solar system. But over the last 25 years, the discovery of more than 4,000 exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system, changed all that.This animation shows a type of gas giant planet known as a hot Jupiter that orbits very close to its star. Findingmore of these youthful planets could help astronomers...[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links