ultra-hot jupiter
Meanings
noun
- A giant planet, of similar mass to that of Jupiter, which orbits close enough to its sun to become tidally locked, and whose day-side atmosphere has therefore heated up so much, as to break apart most molecules, leaving atomic gas. The day-side atmosphere has the temperature and spectral characteristics of a star's surface.
Word forms
Etymology
Blend of ultrahot + hot jupiter. From being a type of gas giant planet much hotter than most jupiter-class planets.
Related words
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.