An exception. It turns out that the solar system is an extremely rare phenomenon in the universe.

Swiss scientists have created a new classification of planetary systems based on existing data on already discovered exoplanets and their positions in star systems. New Atlas writes that the results of the study show that our solar system belongs to the rarest planetary systems.

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Decades of searching for planets outside our star system have made it possible today to discover 5,300 exoplanets with different compositions and different sizes. They are also arranged differently around their main star. It is already known that all the above planets are located in 3910 planetary systems at different distances from Earth.

Thanks to the available data from careful observation, astronomers have divided all the discovered planets into separate types:

• rocky planets such as Earth or Mars;
• Gas giants like Jupiter or Saturn, but they can be much larger;
• Super-Earths, that is, planets similar to Earth, but several times larger;
• Mini-Neptunes, ie planets similar to Neptune but smaller in size;
• Water worlds, that is, rocky planets with a predominance of water in their composition.

Scientists from the University of Bern in Switzerland decided to classify the types of planetary systems already known to astronomers according to the same principle. The main question was whether our solar system is a common planetary system, or is it still unique? Indeed, the solar system is the rarest type of planetary system, as the study shows.

To arrive at this conclusion, scientists studied 853 star systems with several planets. Based on known data, astronomers identified 4 main types of planetary systems existing in space:

• Similar planetary systems are the most common in space, according to scientists. In such systems, several planets of approximately the same size revolve around a star. And they are generally similar to Earth in size.
• Sequential planetary systems are systems in which a group of rocky minor planets orbit a star at a close distance from it, and there are also larger gas and ice giants. Scientists believe that this is the rarest type of system in terms of the position of the planets, and the solar system is included in this group.
• Irregular planetary systems, by contrast, are systems where the larger planets are closer to the star and the smaller ones at a significant distance.
• Mixed planetary systems are systems for which there is no clear configuration and the reason for this is not yet known.

According to scientists, the position, types and sizes of planets in a star system depend in part on the initial conditions under which a particular system arose. For example, the size and mass of the protoplanetary disk of gas and dust surrounding the star from which the planets arose, as well as how much heavy metal was in the composition of the star. In fact, all elements heavier than hydrogen and helium in astronomy are called metals. Scientists also believe that the position of the planets is influenced by their movements in the first stage of the evolution of the planetary system.

• Astronomers say that similar planetary systems consist of small, low-mass protoplanetary disks orbiting a star containing small amounts of heavy metals.
• Regular and irregular planetary systems are formed from large and heavy protoplanetary disks orbiting a star containing large amounts of heavy metals.
• Mixed planetary systems arise from medium-sized preplanetary disks.

Astronomers believe that interactions between planets, such as collisions and further orbital changes, lead to the formation of the final structure of a star system.

It is now known that there are 8 planets in our solar system (Pluto is a dwarf planet since 2006). But all the data points to the fact that our planet is hiding out there, on the edge of our star system. As already written Focusscientists have proposed a new way to detect it.

Scientists have also known for more than 20 years that our Universe has been continuously accelerating its expansion, and that there is a mysterious dark energy behind it. As already written FocusScientists have found the source of this energy, and it is most likely hiding in a long-known space object.