Artist’s impression of hot Jupiter exoplanet in the star cluster Messier 67

This artist’s impression video shows a hot Jupiter exoplanet orbiting close to a star in the rich old star cluster Messier 67, in the constellation of Cancer (The Crab). Astronomers have found far more such planets in the cluster than expected. This surprise result was obtained using a number of telescopes and instruments, among them the HARPS spectrograph at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. The denser environment in a cluster will cause more frequent interactions between planets and nearby stars, which may explain the excess of hot Jupiters.