[Arthalion]

Bingo, the original article is bunk. We've only discovered "odd" solar systems to date because our current methods for detecting extrasolar planets are limited to detecting stellar "wobbles" or observing shifts in a stars brightness. Using these methods, it would be impossible for an observer around a nearby star like Barnard's to detect the presence of our own solar system, and yet nobody questions its existence. Why isn't it detectable? Because Jupiter is too small, its orbit is too regular, and its too far out to create the kinds of wobbles we're looking for. I believe I read somewhere that Jupiter shifts the orbit of our sun by about 30 feet, while the Earth shifts it by mere inches. These gas super-giants orbiting in wild elliptical orbits, in contrast, shift the orbits of their host stars by hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of miles, which our sensitive telescopes can detect.

Detecting planets using variations in brightness is even more troublesome because it requires that the planets be A) massive enough to reflect enough light change the brightness of the host system (Jupiter may be big enough to do this...if it were closer in). Or B) That the solar system face us "edge-on" so the orbiting planets partially eclipse the central star (an extremely unlikely alignment).

As telescopes get better and we gain the ability to actually see these planets rather than inferring their presence through their effect on their solar system, we will begin to find more "normal" terrestrial planetary systems. We'll never find another Earth, of course, because we've evolved as an isolated planetary system for billions of years and our biosphere is our own, but I have no doubt that we will find Earth-like planets, possibly even with life of their own (I'm not saying intelligent life, just life).

[jpsb]

Yall none science types are starting to piss me off with you “wobble” arguments. First the article is not about our ability to detect small earth like planets. Everyone knows we can’t do that yet. The article is about the MODEL used to explain how solar systems form. It seems that the MODEL might be incorrect, and if the MODEL is incorrect THEN maybe solar system like ours are rarer then we used to think.

Jezzz.

[Izzy Dunne]

And Livio said as much later on in the article:

But he said it is hard to tell as planets outside this solar system can only be detected through indirect observation and these methods are not able to detect smaller planets like Earth.