Eccentric Jupiter

A computer simulation of the weather systems on the exoplanet HD 80606 b, an eccentric Jupiter. HD 80606 b's weather is extremely violent due to its highly eccentric orbit

An eccentric Jupiter is a Jovian planet that orbits its star in an eccentric orbit.[1] Eccentric Jupiters may disqualify a planetary system from having Earth-like planets (though not always from having habitable exomoons) in it, because a massive gas giant with an eccentric orbit may eject all Earth mass exoplanets from the habitable zone, if not from the system entirely.

The planets of the solar system, except for Mercury, have orbits with an eccentricity of less than 0.1. However, two-thirds of the exoplanets discovered in 2006 have elliptical orbits with an eccentricity of 0.2 or more.[2] The typical exoplanet with an orbital period greater than five days has a median eccentricity of 0.23.[3] The discovery of this type of exoplanet, together with hot Jupiters, has challenged some widely-held theories about solar system formation.

  1. ^ Raymond, Sean N.; Quinn, Thomas; Lunine, Jonathan I. (March 2004). "Making other earths: dynamical simulations of terrestrial planet formation and water delivery". Icarus. 168 (1): 1–17. arXiv:astro-ph/0308159. Bibcode:2004Icar..168....1R. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2003.11.019. S2CID 9990348. Note: this study treats eccentric Jupiters as giant planets having an orbital eccentricity of 0.1 or greater.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference witt2007 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Kathryn; Fischer; Marcy; et al. (2009). "Old, Rich, and Eccentric: Two Jovian Planets Orbiting Evolved Metal-Rich Stars". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 121 (880): 613–620. arXiv:0904.2786. Bibcode:2009PASP..121..613P. doi:10.1086/599862. S2CID 12042779.