Re: Sky People's solar system
| From: | Orjan Johansen <oerjan@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Tuesday, January 19, 1999, 16:14 |
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On Tue, 19 Jan 1999, Padraic Brown wrote:
> I have only one nitpick with this: there's no such thing as a "natural"
> (i.e., normal!) solar system. We only know one real well (hence I supp=
ose
> the idea of an ideal or natural solar system!); and none of the others
> that are being studied are at all like ours, beyond the basics. One I =
can
> think of off hand has a gas giant up close to the star, and smaller
> planets further out: in contravention of what seems "natural" to us, wh=
ose
> gas giants are well away from the star. Thus, I think there is no real
> harm in placing the planets more or less where you wish!
As I recall, this is probably just an artifact of the method which is use=
d
to detect planets around other stars, namely measuring how their gravity
affects the movement of the star itself. This works best if the planet i=
s
huge, or close to the star, or preferably both. So we shouldn't expect
the average solar system to be quite that different from our own.
Greetings,
=D8rjan.