How rare is our Solar System? In the 30 years or so since planets were first discovered orbiting stars other than our Sun, we have found that planetary systems are common in the Milkyway Galaxy. However, many of them are quite different from the Solar System we know.
The planets in our Solar System revolve around the Sun in stable and almost circular paths, which suggests the orbits have not changed much since the planets first formed. But many planetary systems orbiting around other stars have suffered from a very chaotic past.
The relatively calm history of our Solar System has favoured the flourishing of life here on Earth. In the search for alien worlds that may contain life, we can narrow down the targets if we have a way to identify systems that have had similarly peaceful pasts.
Our international team of astronomers has tackled this issue in research published in Nature Astronomy. We found that between 20% and 35% of Sun-like stars eat their own planets, with the…