We had an interesting conversation last Friday at Happy Hour regarding astronomy. The question is, "How many solar systems are there?"
Many of our camp thought that there were many, however, I am of the opinion that there is in fact just one, and it is ours.
I'm curious what my readers think, so please leave a comment.
Posted by yakuza at July 3, 2006 02:00 PM | TrackBackI believe you guys are confusing Solar System with the Universe maybe? There is only one Universe, multiple Galaxies and Lots of Solar Systems. Here is a link to an article from back in 2002 from nasa and an excerpt from it: http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/phonedrmarc/2002_march.shtml
So far, astronomers have found about 70 solar systems and are discovering new ones every year. Given how many they have found in this neighborhood of the Milky Way galaxy, scientists estimate that there may be many billions of solar systems in our galaxy. Whether this estimate is correct, and how similar other solar systems are to ours, remain to be seen. It has only been a few years since the first solar system apart from ours was detected, so this whole subject is still in its infancy.
Posted by: uscwakko at July 4, 2006 12:41 PMNo, there's only one solar system because there's only one star called Sol -- the sun. There are many stars with planets around them, but they wouldn't be "solar" systems.
Posted by: Jesse at July 7, 2006 10:57 AMOh, I'm sorry Jesse. NASA must be wrong. If you wouldn't mind, could you please contact them ASAP and point out that they're wrong and you're right?
Posted by: uscwakko at July 11, 2006 06:10 PMSee Chuq, if you had taken that job at NASA, we could have corrected it.
uscwakko: It's a semantic distinction, and thus there are bound to be different opinions on usage. Don't get your panties in a bunch.
Posted by: Jesse at July 12, 2006 09:31 AMWoW Jesse, I don't know why you thought I wear panties (I guess you're kinky that way).
Oh and Jesse, I believe you're right it is semantic distinction as to the usage of the word sol meaning "sun" as shown here on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_system "For many years, the solar system had the only planetary system known. The discovery in recent years of many extrasolar planets has uncovered systems very different compared to Earth's solar system. Although the term "solar system" is frequently applied to these other star systems, literally, it should strictly refer to Earth's only: the word "solar" is derived from the Sun's Latin name, Sol. When talking about another stellar system or planetary system, it is more accurate to drop the term "solar" and form names such as "the Alpha Centauri system" or "the 51 Pegasi system"."
There are many differing views as to how many other solar systems (or maybe we should call it planetary systems to be more precise)have been discovered. Here is a link to the Scholastic website FAQ page about solar systems: http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4867
Oh and pardon me if I upset you in any way, Jesse.