Solar System Look-Alike Found

SpuriousLogic writes "Astronomers have discovered a planetary system orbiting a distant star which looks much like our own. They found two planets that were close matches for Jupiter and Saturn orbiting a star about half the size of our Sun. Martin Dominik, from St Andrews University in the UK, said the finding suggested systems like our own could be much more common than we thought."

A bit of a reach

[Bovius]

I'm sorry, I have trouble whenever whenever an astronomer suggests that something they found "may be much more common than we thought." One observation does not mean way more common. It jumps the gap from "purely theoretical" to "proven possible", and in the data set of the known universe really isn't enough to make any type of assertion about commonality.

Yes, I know, our solar system makes it two.

Re:A bit of a reach

[Anonymous Coward]

It certainly eliminates the "uniqueness" we thought our solar system was. So yes, 2 is more common than we previously thought.

Might be somewhere interesting

[lobiusmoop]

for the SETI crowd to point their antennas to.

5,000 light years

[mr_mischief]

... "At least planetary systems like ours might be more common than previously thought over that direction, 5,000 years ago, at around the distance from us that light would take 5,000 years to get here. Or maybe somebody's holding up a distorted mirror 2,500 light years away. We're not really sure. Some scientist said we're discovering more than we used to, now that we're confident that we can detect them and bother looking. That must mean the spike in data is representative."

I'm looking hopefully forward to giving people directions by system name and planet number just as much as the next /. geek. I doubt, though, that thinking in general about the number of multi-planet systems has changed drastically because of this one system. Like most science reporting in the mainstream press, this is oversimplified and overhyped.

rocky planets

[MyNymWasTaken]

I am impressed, but I'll be much more impressed when techniques are developed that can spot rocky Earth-type planets.

Re:A bit of a reach

[porkchop_d_clown]

So yes, 2 is more common than we previously thought.

Because a star is "just like ours" if it has 50% of the mass?

I'm sorry, this story is a ridiculous piece of over-reaching. A star half the size of ours will have, off the cuff, maybe 1/4th the light output. How big is that habitable zone going to be?

"Inhabited" or "Inhabitable?"

[BeeBeard]

FTA:

He said that the ultimate goal for exoplanet researchers was to find habitable Earth-like and Mars-like planets.

(emphasis added)

While we all crack wise about the bizarro planet of our science fiction dreams, it bears pointing out that the point of the program is ostensibly to find other inhabitable planets--that is, potential sites for future human expansion, rather than other inhabited planets. The difference between the two is not insignificant, and is a nod to the somewhat conservative view that while it may prove impossible to find another planet like the Earth where life has evolved concurrently with our own, it is nevertheless very realistic to search for another planet like the Earth where life could thrive.

Re:A bit of a reach

[Toonol]

Right; we don't really have any data to confirm how common earthlike planets are. I expect they're very common, using the common-sense reasoning thusly: As soon as we gained the technology to detect big planets we found them all over. As soon as we develop the technology to detect small planets, the same thing will probably happen. I'm 99% positive I'm right.

But scientists can't really reason that way; they may hypothesize smaller planets, but can't really make any factual statement about what lies beyond their ability to detect. I guess that the statement would be better phrased as we now have concrete evidence our solar system isn't unique, so the hypothesis that our type of system is relatively common has passed a hurdle of proof.

Re:A bit of a reach

[pe1rxq]

Half the size is still very much alike....
And because the configuration is alike (as far as gas giants and there place) it is likely that the evolution of our system is not unique.

Re:A bit of a reach

[WaltBusterkeys]

Saying that "a factor of 2 is pretty damn close in the astronomical world" is right, but it proves how unlikely it is that we'll find another solar system "just like ours." If astronomers think that being off by 50% is a discovery worth announcing worldwide, then that shows just how unlikely they think it is that they'll discover something that's only off by 5-10%. As others have said, a sun that's half the size of ours will have a much smaller habitable zone (at least based on carbon/water life), and there are only gas giants circling this star.

Re:A bit of a reach

[niktemadur]

...it proves how unlikely it is that we'll find another solar system "just like ours". If astronomers think that being off by 50% is a discovery worth announcing worldwide, then that shows just how unlikely they think it is that they'll discover something that's only off by 5-10%.

Another way of looking at it, is that the technologies and techniques used to detect extrasolar planets are getting more sensitive and precise, we're inching closer the point in which we'll be able to detect solar systems much more similar to our own. The announcement is the equivalent of saying "We've attained a new milestone, we're getting there".

Ten years ago, only super-Jupiters with orbital periods of a couple of days could tug at its' star strongly enough to be detected from Earth, while today much more subtle (and complex) influences can be inferred.

Even though extrasolar planets are discovered so often now that it's almost become a mundane occurrence, we've yet to even begin the Golden Age Of Planet Discovery. Just you wait until the Kepler Mission, New Worlds Mission, Terrestrial Planet Finder Mission, or any other of an array of proposals, come to fruition. Then the fun will truly start. And let's be patient, as Hubble, COBE and WMAP took like what seemed forever to get off the ground, yet look at the results.