{"id":15691,"date":"2013-05-07T13:54:13","date_gmt":"2013-05-07T18:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/?p=15691"},"modified":"2017-01-24T17:20:08","modified_gmt":"2017-01-24T22:20:08","slug":"we-live-on-an-unusual-planet-in-an-unusual-solar-system-thats-two-unusuals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/05\/we-live-on-an-unusual-planet-in-an-unusual-solar-system-thats-two-unusuals.html","title":{"rendered":"We Live On An Unusual Planet In An Unusual Solar System. That’s Two “Unusuals.”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Or so we thought\u2026
Image Credit: Robert Krulwich\/NPR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Yesterday, I was going on about the Sun<\/a>. Today, Robert Krulwich, of NPR\u2019s science desk, has a very interesting piece up today on a blog that is written and illustrated by him.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s called, Our Very Normal Solar System Isn\u2019t Normal Anymore<\/em>.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not just talking about this because scientists kicked Pluto to the curb, you know. There is more to it than that. Have a taste,<\/p>\n

As of this month, we\u2019ve discovered 884 planets, 692 planetary systems, 132 of them with more than one planet and, strange to tell, almost none of them look like us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are now beginning to understand that nature seems to overwhelmingly prefer planetary systems that have multiple planets with orbits of less than 100 days,\u201d says Steve Vogt, astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz. \u201cThis is quite unlike our own solar system, where there is nothing with an orbit inside that of Mercury. So our solar system is, in some sense, a bit of a freak and not the most typical kind of system that Nature cooks up.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of sudden, we\u2019re the abnormal ones. We have to figure out why our solar system turned out different from all the others.<\/p>\n

The newest explanation is that new planets don\u2019t stay put. They move. A gassy planet will form on the far side of the frost line, orbit for a while, and then gradually move inward, pulled in closer by the star. It stops only when the sun pushes back (via strong T Tauri winds that come with the start of nuclear fusion).<\/p>\n

Did We Once Have A Big Sun-Snuggling Planet?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Maybe we once had a big gassy planet close to our sun, but it didn\u2019t survive. It became part of the Sun. Or maybe it got ejected \u2014 astronomers are finding emigrant planets, lonely orbs that wander the universe with no star, just drifting. Maybe one of those used to live here.<\/p>\n

Or \u2014 maybe Saturn and the Sun played a gentle tug-of-war. There are computer simulations that suggest Saturn\u2019s gravitational tug kept Jupiter from sailing inwards, so the giants drifted a little closer \u2014 then stopped. The truth is, we don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

Mike Brown, an astronomer at Caltech, wrote me that while everybody is busy hunting for an Earth-like planet, they missed this story. \u201cBefore we ever discovered any [planets outside the solar system] we thought we understood the formation of planetary systems pretty deeply.\u201d We had our frost line. We knew how solar systems formed. \u201cIt was a really beautiful theory,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd, clearly, thoroughly wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enjoy the entire article.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m reminded again of this excellent video that attempts to show us the known universe in a few minutes time.<\/p>\n