Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle (IPAC)

This artist's rendering shows a giant exoplanet causing small bodies to collide in a disk of dust.

A study in The Astronomical Journal finds that giant exoplanets with long-period orbits are more likely to be found around young stars that have a disk of dust and debris than those without disks. The study focused on planets more than five times the mass of Jupiter. The astronomers are conducting the largest survey to date of stars with dusty debris disks, and finding the best evidence yet that giant planets are responsible for keeping that material in check.