chapter 4 Planet Bounty Hot Jupiters and other Surprises It had been a long time coming. There were the many decades of failed attempts and refuted claims, of denied research grants and scarce telescope time, and of pains- taking refinements to the instruments and software. Finally, in the fall of 1995, astronomers announced de- finitive evidence of the first planet orbiting a normal star other than the Sun. It was an unusual beast in an unex- pected location--a gas giant a hundred times closer to