Media release

From: Springer Nature

Giant Jupiter-like planets may be more common in the nearby solar neighbourhood than previously thought, suggests a Nature Communications paper. The findings suggest the possibility that other systems may be similar to our own and improve our understanding of these giant planets orbiting nearby stars.

Models predict that giant planets should easily form around solar-type stars, but until now not many have been found. Previous research has suggested that the Solar System may be unusual because less than 20% of solar-type stars are orbited by Jupiter-like planets — planets that have a similar mass and orbit to Jupiter. However, these planets may be much more common in young moving stellar groups. Four massive Jupiter-like planets have been already discovered in the nearby young β Pic Moving Group (BPMG) — a group of stars which is located relatively near Earth — using a technique called high-contrast imaging. Young moving stellar groups are strong targets for direct imaging of exoplanets, and are important for stellar formation and evolution, and planet-forming circumstellar disk evolution studies. Four other planets have also been suggested using high-precision astrometry by the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite.

Raffaele Gratton and colleagues analysed 30 stars in BPMG using stellar mass-planetary distance distributions, which are widely used to discuss planet formation scenarios. They found that 20 of them might host a Jupiter-like planet, as their orbits would be stable. The authors suggest that Jupiter-like planets may be more common than previously found, at least in small star-forming regions.