Astronomers have discovered a massive large number of hot Jupiter planets inside close to star cluster called Messier 67. The results are very astonishing since only very few exoplanets have been discovered within star clusters until now.
Messier 67 hosts 88 stars and is approximately the same age as our sun. Scientists think the solar system was born of situation similar to those discovered in Messier 67, which is why astronomers have been studying the cluster for several years.
"We want to use an open star cluster as laboratory to explore the properties of exoplanets and theories of planet formation," lead researcher Roberto Saglia, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, explained in a news release. "Here we have not only many stars possibly hosting planets, but also a dense environment, in which they must have formed."
The rate of hot Jupiters among stars outside of clusters is less than 1 percent.
“The new results mean that there are hot Jupiters around some 5% of the Messier 67 stars studied — far more than in comparable studies of stars not in clusters, where the rate is more like 1%.” Co researcher Anna Brucalassi said.
What astronomers are still trying to figure out is what causes Jupiter and similar planets to go toward their respective stars.
The study was published this week in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
