[Darksheare]

What's seemingly odd is that our solar system seems to be different from others.
Seems the norm known so far is huge Jupiter plus class planets in tight close orbits.

Here our solar system is, multiple tiny planets, some gas giants, and not one but two or three debris belts plus stragglers.
SC's earlier thread on tangentially related subject:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1570230/posts

[neverdem]

Thanks for the link.

[Ichneumon]

What's seemingly odd is that our solar system seems to be different from others. Seems the norm known so far is huge Jupiter plus class planets in tight close orbits.

Might that just reflect the kinds of planets we can most easily detect from vast distances?

[SunkenCiv]

I think we're getting reports of larger-than-Jupiter worlds and closer-than-Mercury giants because of the limits of the observing technology, which has been improving all the time since the late 1990s, when the first confirmed extrasolar planet was discovered.

The issues raised by these seemingly anomalous systems are real ones, however. :')



http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/other.html

"Observations of the very nearby Barnard's Star were once thought to be evidence of gravitational effects of planets but they now seem to have been in error."