Reconsidering the Solitude of Exoplanets: New Discoveries Challenge Previous Assumptions.

Hot Jupiters, exoplanets that orbit their stars in 10 days or less, were thought to be solitary residents in their star systems. However, a new study analyzing data from NASA's Kepler Space Telescope found that 12% of known Hot Jupiters and up to 70% of warm Jupiters might have nearby planetary companions. The study used the transit timing variation method to detect worlds close to hot Jupiters that the transit method couldn’t spot. The presence of neighbor worlds around hot Jupiters is strong evidence that not all hot Jupiters have a violent history as was previously thought.