Gas giant planets are far easier than terrestrial planets to detect around other stars , and are thought to form much more quickly than terrestrial planets .
Thus , in systems with giant planets , the late stages of terrestrial planet formation are strongly affected by the giant planets ’ dynamical presence .
Observations of giant planet orbits may therefore constrain the systems that can harbor potentially habitable , Earth-like planets .
We present results of 460 N-body simulations of terrestrial accretion from a disk of Moon- to Mars-sized planetary embryos .
We systematically vary the orbital semimajor axis of a Jupiter-mass giant planet between 1.6 and 6 AU , and eccentricity between 0 and 0.4 .
We find that for Sun-like stars , giant planets inside roughly 2.5 AU inhibit the growth of 0.3 Earth-mass planets in the habitable zone .
If planets accrete water from volatile-rich embryos past 2-2.5 AU , then water-rich habitable planets can only form in systems with giant planets beyond 3.5 AU .
Giant planets with significant orbital eccentricities inhibit both accretion and water delivery .
The majority of the current sample of extra-solar giant planets appears unlikely to form habitable planets .