Before the discovery of the first extrasolar planets two decades ago, astronomers expected that the architecture of our Solar System was typical – a more or less orderly set of worlds orbiting in the same plane with small rocky worlds close in and much larger, volatile-rich planets orbiting farther out. But the very first exoplanetary discoveries immediately challenged this view as giant planets were found with a wide range of orbital radii. Now with over two thousand confirmed exoplanets, scientists are beginning to accumulate enough information to quantify how typical, or atypical, our Solar System actually is (see “How Typical is Our Solar System?”).
In my latest essay for Centauri Dreams, entitled “Where Are the Jupiter Analogs?”, I take a closer look at the discovery of HD 32963b by high school student, Dominick Rowan, working with the European-based HARPS team. This new discovery is considered a “Jupiter analog” – an extrasolar giant planet with a Jupiter-like mass in a Jupiter-like orbit around a Sun-like star. As it turns out, Jupiter analogs are less common than originally supposed with only 21 confirmed examples currently known. A detailed statistical analysis of these finds and, just as important, the lack of finds in ongoing radial velocity surveys has allowed the prevalence of Jupiter analogs to be determined.
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Related Reading
“How Typical is Our Solar System?”, Drew Ex Machina, August 15, 2015 [Post]
“The Prevalence of Earth-Size Planets Around Sun-Like Stars”, Drew Ex Machina, November 3, 2015 [Post]
“Occurrence of Potentially Habitable Planets around Red Dwarfs”, Drew Ex Machina, January 20, 2015 [Post]
“Architecture of M-Dwarf Planetary Systems”, Drew Ex Machina, October 24, 2014 [Post]