Scientists discovered five Jupiter-like Planets

The team, led by Pierre Maxted of the Keele University in Staffordshire of UK, discovered five new Jupiter-like planets that orbits very close to their host stars. The discovered planets exhibits similar characteristics that of our solar systems biggest planet.

The findings of the discovery were published online on 4 February 2016 in the arXiv journal.

The planets were studied in their light curve by using the Wide Angle Search for Planets-South (WASP-South) instrument—an array of eight cameras observing selected regions of the southern sky. The instrument is located at the site of the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), outside Sutherland in South Africa.

To confirm the planetary nature of the observed targets, the researchers used photometry from the EulerCam instrument on the Swiss Euler 1.2-m telescope and the TRAPPIST telescope, as well as spectroscopy obtained with the CORALIE spectrograph—all installed at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.

The newly discovered planets were designated WASP-119 b, WASP-124 b, WASP-126 b, WASP-129 b and WASP-133 b. Their masses range from 0.3 to 1.2 the mass of the Jupiter, with radii between one to 1.5 Jupiter radius, and their orbital periods vary from 2.17 to 5.75 days.

Orbital period of the five planets are
WASP-119 b – It is a typical hot with a mass of 1.2 of the mass of Jupiter. It orbital period is 2.5 days.

Its host star has a similar mass to the sun's but appears to be much older based on its effective temperature and density.

WASP-124 b – It is less massive than Jupiter (0.6 Jupiter masses) with an orbital period of 3.4 days and a much younger parent star.

WASP-126 b – The planet could be a good target for transmission spectroscopy due to its low surface gravity with a bright hot star. It is also the lowest-mass world found by Maxted's team.

WASP-129 b – It is a planet with longest orbital period with high surface gravity.

WASP-133 b – It has the shortest orbital period of the five presented in the study. It is slightly bigger than the solar system's most massive planet (1.2 of Jupiter's mass and 1.2 of its radius).

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