Why did the discovery of Hot Jupiters challenge existing planet formation models?
Answer
Giant planets require vast material that should only accumulate beyond the 'ice line.'
Current models predicted that massive gas giants required the abundant volatile compounds found in the colder, outer regions of a system, beyond the ice line, to accumulate their size.
Related Questions
What primary feature distinguishes Hot Jupiters from Jupiter in our Solar System?Why did the discovery of Hot Jupiters challenge existing planet formation models?What is the scientific consensus regarding where Hot Jupiters originally formed?What migration mechanism involves a planet carving a gap in the disk and spiraling inward due to angular momentum transfer?What mechanism is invoked to explain the most extreme or highly inclined Hot Jupiters?What process follows gravitational scattering to result in the characteristic nearly circular orbits of many Hot Jupiters?Which migration pathway tends to leave a planet's orbit aligned with the star’s equatorial plane?Why are detection methods like the transit method biased toward finding Hot Jupiters?If Jupiter orbits at 5.2 AU, what is the approximate orbital distance of a Hot Jupiter?What explains the lack of observed Hot Jupiters orbiting with periods of only a few hours, known as the 'close-in desert'?