Hot Jupiters: Lands of Plenty

Abstract

In late August 2005, 80 researchers from more than 15 countries convened for a 4-day conference entitled ``The Tenth Anniversary of 51 Peg b: Status and Prospects for Hot Jupiter Studies''. The meeting was held at l'Observatoire de Haute-Provence, the location of the 1.93-m telescope and ELODIE spectrograph used to discover the planetary companion to 51 Peg roughly 10 years ago. I summarize several dominant themes that emerged from the meeting, including (i) recent improvements in the precision of radial velocity measurements of nearby, Sun-like stars, (ii) the continued value of individual, newly-discovered planets of novel character to expand the parameter space with which the theory must contend, and (iii) the crucial role of space-based observatories in efforts to characterize hot Jupiter planets. I also present the returns of an informal poll of the conference attendees conducted on the last day of the meeting, which may be amusing to revisit a decade hence.

8 pages, 2 figures, summary of conference "The Tenth Anniversary of 51 Peg b: Status and Prospects for Hot Jupiter Studies", held August 22 - 25, 2005; an important "not" added to caption to Figure 2