David Kipping

We had this picture before we started finding exoplanets that everything would just be like the solar system.

We have these eight planets, circular orbits.

You have the rocky planets on the inside, the gas giants on the outside.

And we came up with this really elegant theory, this kind of nebula theory to try and explain that.

And did a great job, explained everything.

But then as soon as we started finding exoplanets, one of the first type of exoplanets we found was these hot Jupiters.

These are Jupiter-sized planets, which are about 20 times closer to their star than Mercury is around the sun.

And when those were first announced, nobody believed them.

People were like, you can't get a Jupiter there.

Jupiter is supposed to be 5 AU.

How do you get it parked almost onto the surface of the star?

It doesn't make any sense.

None of the planet formation models could explain that.

And it took until we found about 10 of them in a row that people started slowly changing their minds.

And the proof of the pudding was when one of them eclipsed its star.

So one of them actually passed right in front of the star, right at the moment it was supposed to, and we saw an eclipse.

And when that happened, everyone was like, all right, this is real.

But then we had to figure out how the hell do you do that?

So there was a long skeptical curve to get to that point.

And now we think the way to make those things