Is our solar system weird? All others are different (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, December 11, 2018, 17:43 (1955 days ago) @ David Turell

None are seen so far like ours:

https://www.reasons.org/explore/blogs/todays-new-reason-to-believe/read/todays-new-reas...

"Astronomers have detected and measured the mass and/or orbital features of 3,869 planets in 2,887 planetary systems beyond the solar system.1 This ranks as a staggering rate of discovery, given that the first confirmed detection of a planet orbiting another hydrogen-fusion-burning star was as recent as 1995.2 What do the characteristics of these systems reveal about potential habitability for advanced life?

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"The Italian team reported on the frequency of inner low-mass planets in the presence of outer gas giant planets.3 The Chinese astronomers, Wei Zhu and Yanqin Wu, reported on relationships they discovered between super-Earth planets and cold gas giant planets.

"The three most common exoplanets discovered to date are super-Earths, hot Jupiters, and cold Jupiters. Super-Earth planets are those with masses and radii greater than Earth’s but less than Neptune’s. Hot Jupiters are planets more massive than Saturn that orbit their host stars closer than Earth orbits the Sun. Cold Jupiters are planets more massive than Saturn that are more distant from their host stars than Earth is from the Sun.

"Of the 3,869 confirmed exoplanets, astronomers possess both a measured value of the mass and a measured value of the orbital radius for 1,553 planets. Of these 1,553 exoplanets, 20.5 percent are super-Earths, 33.0 percent are cold Jupiters, and 37.7 percent are hot Jupiters.

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"For more than a decade, astronomers have recognized that the solar system is highly unusual. It possesses cold Jupiters closer to the Sun than 14 times Earth’s distance from the Sun but lacks one or more super-Earth planets, hot Jupiters, or cold Jupiter planets with orbital eccentricities greater than 0.09. Each one of these four features, if present in a planetary system, rules out the possibility of any kind of advanced life existing in the system.

"How many of the known multiple-planet systems exhibit these life-essential features? The answer for the 638 known multi-planet exoplanetary systems is zero.13 How about the known exoplanetary systems where only one planet has been discovered? Of these 2,249 systems, they either lack a cold Jupiter closer than 14 times Earth’s distance from the Sun or the planet they contain possesses characteristics that would rule out the possible existence of another planet in the system capable of sustaining advanced life.

"The presumption back in 1995 was that astronomers would find many exoplanetary systems where the probability of advanced life possibly existing in that system would be greater than zero. More than twenty-three years later, with a database of 2,888 planetary systems and 3,877 planets, only one planetary system and only one planet possess the characteristics that the possible existence of advanced life needs. It requires little effort to discern the identity of that single planetary system and single planet."

Comment: Our planet is special and so is our solar system. God at work