giant planets tagged posts

How they can prevent life in other planetary systems. Giant gas planets can be agents of chaos, ensuring nothing lives on their Earth-like neighbors around other stars. New studies show, in some planetary systems, the giants tend to kick smaller planets out of orbit and wreak havoc on their climates.

Jupiter, by far the biggest planet in our solar system, plays an important protective role. Its enormous gravitational field deflects comets and asteroids that might otherwise hit Earth, helping create a stable environment for life. However, giant planets elsewhere in the universe do not necessarily protect life on their smaller, rocky planet neighbors.

A new Astronomical Journal p...

Astronomers believe planets like Jupiter shield us from space objects that would otherwise slam into Earth. Now they’re closer to learning whether giant planets act as guardians of solar systems elsewhere in the galaxy.

A UCR-led team has discovered two Jupiter-sized planets about 150 light years away from Earth that could reveal whether life is likely on the smaller planets in other solar systems.

“We believe planets like Jupiter have profoundly impacted the progression of life on Earth...

Artist’s concept of a giant extrasolar planet. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

The giant planets have masses from 2.4 to 5.5 the mass of Jupiter and have very long orbital periods ranging from nearly 2 to slightly more than 4 Earth years. The team, led by Matias Jones of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, made the discovery during observations under the EXPRESS (EXoPlanets aRound Evolved StarS) radial velocity program. They used 2 telescopes located in the Atacama desert in Chile: the 1.5 m telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory and the 2.2 m telescope at La Silla observatory. Complementary observations were conducted at the 3.9 m Anglo-Australian telescope in Australia.

Using spectrographs mounted on these telescopes, the researchers were monitoring a sample of 166 b...