Glimpse of Alien Jupiter-like Planet May Answer Questions About Solar System Origins

Recent glimpses of a giant, alien planet may help answer the questions about the origins of our own solar system. The Jupiter-like behemoth, orbiting a star 130 light-years from Earth, could provide proof as to whether our planetary system formed by core accretion or by gravitational instability.

The findings, which were published in Science Express and will appear in the journal Science on March 22^nd, were made possible in part by the advanced instrumentation on the Keck II telescope. In addition, the researchers used a high-resolution imaging spectrograph called OSIRIS in order to uncover the chemical fingerprints of specific molecules in the giant planet's cloudy atmosphere.

The planet itself, named HR 8779c, is just one of four gas giants that were discovered orbiting a star in 2008. All four of the massive planets are super-sized--larger than any in our own solar system with masses that are three to seven times that of Jupiter. Partly because of their masses, the planets' orbits are also large--about 40 times further from its parent star than the Earth's orbit.

Despite the planet's dissimilarities to Earth, it may give astronomers clues about the origins of our own solar system. In the past, there has been uncertainty as to how planetary systems form. One theory, named the gravitational instability theory, suggests that large planets form directly from the instabilities within the gasses around them. This leads to gravitational collapse and creates the giant planets.  The core accretion model, in contrast, suggests that large gas giant planets form at great distances from the central star and smaller, rocky planets are located closer in. The rocky planets become the prime candidates for supporting life.

With their new findings, the researchers were able to compare the amount of carbon to the amount of oxygen present in the planet's atmosphere. They were then able to use this chemical mix to learn how the entire planetary system possibly formed. In particular, they were able to deduce that HR 8799 most likely formed via the core accretion model.

"The results suggest the HR 8799 system is like a scaled-up Solar System," said Quinn Konopacky of U of T's Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics in a press release. "And so, in addition to the gas giants far from their parent star, it would not come as a surprise to find Earth-like planets closer in."

Earth-like planets aside, the research also shows how our own solar system may have formed since it favors one theory over the other. Konopacky and her team plan to continue to study the super-sized planets in order to learn more about their atmospheres.

"The more we learn about this distant planetary system, the more we learn about our own," said Konopacky in a press release.