Kepler-44 is a Sun-like G-type star (about 1.12 solar masses, 5,800 K, 1.35 solar radii), 1,188 light-years from Earth. Kepler-44 b is a 1.00-Jupiter-mass companion, with an orbital period of 3.2 days, at 0.045 AU from its star, and an equilibrium temperature near 1,544 K, on an eccentric orbit (e ≈ 0.07), discovered in 2011 via transit. The inner world is a hot Jupiter — a gas giant hugging its star at a fraction of Mercury's distance — a class that forced astronomers to rethink how giant planets form and migrate inward.