• Question: What other solar systems are there ?

    Asked by Emily03 to Heather, Helen, Hugh, Jane, Julian on 13 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Julian Onions

      Julian Onions answered on 13 Nov 2014:

      There are now so many detected we are losing count. There are over 1000 exoplants (planets going around distant stars) and we are still finding them at quite a rate, so the number goes up every day.
      Its an exciting time to be in planetary science!

    • Photo: Helen Johnson

      Helen Johnson answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      Hi Emily! As Julian says there are many other solar systems that we know of. There are billions of other galaxies, with hundreds of billions of stars. We can look at nearby solar systems and see if any planets fall in the ‘Goldilocks zone’ – not too hot, not too cold – which means they might host life. Even if the system is very far away, scientists can check for planets orbiting around it by looking for the effect a planet’s gravity would have on the star (it would make it ‘wobble’ a tiny bit), or look for when any planets pass in front blocking some of the light and making the star appear fainter.

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