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Do you know how many planets there might be outside our solar system?
With the advancement of science and technology, scholars have conducted increasingly in-depth research on galaxies outside the solar system, especially in the discovery of planets. Based on current research, astronomers have proposed the hypothesis that every star is orbited by at least one planet, which means that there may be tens of billions of planets in the universe. This discovery forces us to rethink the existence of planets and the expansion of planetary systems.
According to a published survey, between 22% and 8% of Sun-like stars host the sought-after "Earth-size" planets that lie within their habitable zones.
When we talk about star formation, almost all stars are composed mainly of hydrogen and helium, but there is also a small amount of heavier elements. The proportion of these elements is called metallicity. Higher metallicity is generally associated with planet formation, especially when it comes to large planets. The study pointed out that the frequency of asteroids appearing around planets with high metallicity is more than three times that of planets with low metallicity.
A 2014 study showed that planets of all sizes, both giant and smaller, are significantly more common around planets with higher metallicity than around planets with lower metallicity, making the People have a deeper understanding of the elemental composition of stars.
The most common extrasolar planets currently orbit around Sun-like stars, mainly because astronomical research focuses on these stars. These planets range in size and composition, from those in the habitable zone to those in extreme environments, such as "hot Jupiters," which are planets with masses similar to Jupiter but orbiting very close to their stars. of the celestial body. Many scientists are amazed that such planets can even complete a single orbit in just a few days.
However, the detection of planets still faces challenges. Most of the exoplanets known to date have been discovered using the radial velocity method and the transit method, which are most sensitive to large-mass planets in small orbits, making it difficult to discover small, inert, or distant planets. The only certainty, at least for now, is that discoveries will become more frequent in the future as technology improves.
The latest observational data shows that as more exoplanets are discovered, the scientific community is gradually confirming that every star is likely to have planets orbiting it, so this phenomenon has been regarded as a "rule" rather than an "exception" .
Despite this, the planetary data scientists have is still very incomplete. There are still many undiscovered planets, especially those in the outer regions of stars. In a binary star system, it is difficult to determine which star the planet actually orbits, and the parameters given may therefore be underestimated. Many stars that were originally thought to be single stars may actually have companion stars, which makes the motion parameters of the planets more complicated.
The researchers believe that dense planetary clouds and the few open star cluster environments could also inhibit planet formation. However, recent discoveries have shown that planets can also be found in open star clusters, proving that in these special environments, the frequency of planet formation is not much different from the rate of planet formation around other stars.
With the advancement of future technology and the introduction of new observation methods, the scientific community will have more new discoveries in interstellar exploration. This also makes us wonder whether there are really more planets like Earth in the universe waiting for our discovery, suggesting the existence of life?
