We’ve Never Found Anything Like Our Solar System. Is It a Freak in Space? : ScienceAlert

Since the landmark discovery in 1992 of two planets orbiting a star outside of our Solar System, thousands of new worlds have been added to a rapidly growing list of ‘exoplanets’ in the Milky Way galaxy.

We’ve learnt many things from this vast catalogue of alien worlds orbiting alien stars. But one small detail stands out like a sore thumb. We’ve found nothing else out there like our own Solar System.

This has led some to conclude that our home star and its brood could be outliers in some way – perhaps the only planetary system of its kind.

By extension, this could mean life itself is an…