Scientists from Switzerland who examined data from 853 planetary systems identified four main classes
One of the most famous examples is the systemTRAPPIST-1. It contains seven rocky planets roughly the size of Earth. Ordered systems are those where the inner planets are small and rocky, and gas and ice giants are found on the outskirts. The solar system falls into this category, and scientists have said that this is the rarest configuration.
Anti-ordered systems work the other way around:Large planets are closer to the star and become smaller as they move away. And finally, there are mixed systems, in which the planets are located chaotically.
How planetary systems evolve dependsfrom the initial conditions at its birth, including the mass of the disk of dust and gas that forms the planets themselves, and the abundance of heavy metals in the parent star. Also, the structure of the system partly depends on the dynamics of the planets during its life.
The authors of the study are confident that the more weWe learn about other planetary systems, the better we understand our place in the Universe. The research was published in two studies in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
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On the cover: an artist's view of the TRAPPIST-1 system
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech