Is our solar system weird (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, May 18, 2015, 15:07 (3476 days ago)

The jury is still out but it is possible or probable from various viewpoints:-http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150515-how-weird-is-our-solar-system-"The bigger question, though, is just how weird is the solar system. "Every indication right now looks like we might be rare," Walsh says. But at the same time, the planetary census is far from complete. "The jury is still out," he says.-"Astronomers simply haven't detected many planets like those in the solar system yet. "It's more difficult to see the systems like our own by any of the existing planet finding methods," says Jim Kasting, a planetary scientist at Penn State University in State College, US. "The fact that we haven't seen many systems like our own doesn't mean they're not common. It just means they're not that easy to see.'"