Do other solar systems exist?

Answer

We only use the name “solar system” for our own solar system: the sun, with the eight planets that, as you know, revolve around the sun, and all kinds of smaller celestial bodies such as asteroids, dwarf planets… that also revolve around the sun.

Planets have also been discovered around other stars. So there are indeed still stars with a planetary system around them. Planets around a star other than our sun are called exoplanets.

But know that these exoplanets are very difficult to observe. They aren’t really “visible” either. We only know that they are there because, for example, they slightly shield the light from the star if they happen to orbit in front of the star. We then temporarily see the star become a tiny bit less bright.

Because they are so difficult to observe, only the largest planets are usually discovered around a star. And even then we usually only know the distance to the star of those planets and we have a rough idea of ​​how massive they are. We don’t know at all whether there is life on those exoplanets, or even what their surfaces look like. So we really only know that they are there.