A Brazillian-led team  used the ESO 3.6-meter telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, searching for Solar systems similar to ours.  In a Press Release, the team announced their upcoming paper, set to appear Astronomy & Astrophysics, where they claim to have found a sun-like star (HIP 11915) with a Jupiter sized planet orbiting at similar distance.  The ESO (European Souther Observatory) has an instrument called HARPS (the High Accuracy Radial Planet Searcher) mounted to the telescope.

The significance, the team notes, is that current theories suggest Jupiter is the key to our solar system’s organization and creation.  These theories say Jupiter’s gravitational influence has much to do with why the inner planets are smaller and rocky and the outer ones large and gaseous.  Finding another Jupiter is essential to finding another Earth, suggesting that life (as we know it) could exist in planets similar to our own.

Other Jupiter sized planets have been found, this one though, at the appropriate distance, from a star with similar size and age to our Sun, has the team very enthusiastic.

University of Chicago based lead author Megan Bedell, says in the release: “After two decades of hunting for exoplanets, we are finally beginning to see long-period gas giant planets similar to those in our own Solar System thanks to the long-term stability of planet hunting instruments like HARPS. This discovery is, in every respect, an exciting sign that other solar systems may be out there waiting to be discovered.”