HIGHLIGHTS Hot Jupiters are giant, hot balls of gas. They are about 3x hotter than an oven. They are extremely windy places. One side always faces the star they are orbiting. Imagine that you are landing on a planet – but it has no surface to stand on! The entire …

Imagine a planet-sized eyeball floating in space, its giant pupil endlessly staring at its host star. Sounds gross and weird? Sure. But these planets do exist, and they may even host life. Eyeball planets are created when a terrestrial planet orbits so close to its star that it becomes “tidally …