Research Press Release
Nature Communications
October 18, 2023
Giant Jupiter-like planets may be more common near the sun than previously thought, a paper published in Nature Communications shows. This finding suggests that planetary systems outside our solar system may be similar to our solar system and improves our understanding of giant planets orbiting nearby stars.
Models predict that giant planets are more likely to form around solar-type stars, but observations to date have not found many such planets. Previous research has shown that less than 20% of solar-type stars are orbited by Jupiter-type planets (planets with the same mass and orbit as Jupiter), so the solar system may be an “unusual” planetary system. sex has been suggested. In contrast, Jupiter-like planets may be much more common in young, moving star clusters. Using a high-contrast imaging technique, researchers have already discovered four gigantic Jupiter-like planets in the Beta Pictoris Mobilizing Cluster (BPMG), a young star cluster relatively close to Earth. Young, moving star clusters are promising targets for direct imaging of exoplanets, and are important not only for studying star formation and evolution, but also for studying the evolution of the circumstellar disks that form planets. In addition, high-precision astronomical observations by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) space telescope Gaia suggest the existence of four other giant Jupiter-like planets.
Raffaele Gratton and colleagues analyzed 30 stars in the BPMG using distributions of stellar mass and host star-planet distance, which are widely used when discussing planet formation scenarios. As a result, 20 of these planets are thought to maintain stable orbits, indicating the possibility of the existence of Jupiter-like planets orbiting the star. Gratton and colleagues suggest that Jupiter-like planets may be more common than previously thought, at least in small star-forming regions.
doi:10.1038/s41467-023-41665-0
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