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The star 51 Pegasi is in the constellation of Pegasus at a distance of about 48 light years from our sun.
A Jupiter sized planet was found by Didier Queloz in 1995, orbiting it in 4 days, at a distance of 4,700,000 miles. This was independently confirmed by the planet finding team of Jeff Marcy and Paul Butler. This planet was the first extra-solar planet to be discovered. Orbiting this close, it is assumed that the atmosphere would be superheated.
Doug Lin used the data from these observations and others to explain how gas giants could form far out and spiral in to a close orbit.
It is assumed that the planet is gravity locked, resulting in one side having a temperature of over 1000 degrees celsius, while the other side would be frozen.
last modified 21:02 2004/04/04