A Brazilian-led team has announced the discovery of a planet just like Jupiter a day after New Horizons released its stunning images of Pluto.
Named, HIP11915, it plays an important role in shaping the architecture of planetary systems according to the European Southern Observatory (ESO) team who made the discovery led by Brazilian astrophysicist Jorge Melendez.
“The existence of a Jupiter-mass planet in a Jupiter-like orbit around a Sun-like star opens the possibility that the system of planets around this star may be similar to our own Solar System,” ESO said.
“HIP 11915 is about the same age as the Sun and, furthermore, its Sun-like composition suggests that there may also be rocky planets orbiting closer to the star,” they said.
Artist’s Impression of a Jupiter twin orbiting
If it’s true then the possibility of locating planets like planet Earth in this solar system are also high.
The teams article, “The Solar Twin Planet Search II. A Jupiter twin around a solar twin,” appearing in Astronomy and Astrophysics says the presence of a Jupiter twin and a solar-like composition both make HIP11915 an excellent prospect for future terrestrial planet searches.
However the team says to finalise its findings, years of research will need to be carried out.
