Astronomer discovers the ‘ultimate solar system’.
The ‘ultimate solar system’ revealed: Astronomer discovers it’s possible to have a sun that hosts SIXTY habitable Earth-like planets
- Dr Sean Raymond has unveiled his theoretical model of a planetary system
- And he says it is possible a solar system could have up to 60 Earths
- To create the model he considered the types of star, planet and orbit
- The total system would be two binary stars with two planetary systems
- One would have 36 habitable planets and the other would have 24
- Such a system is not likely to be common but could exist, says Raymond
To date the most populated planetary system that we know of is that around the sun-like star HD 10180, which is thought to have nine planets in total.
The planets, however, are inhospitable to life as we know it, ranging from hot super-Earths to gas giants bigger than Neptune.
But could there exist a system with many, many more planets than this – with dozens of them habitable? That’s what one astronomer has calculated, and he says it’s theoretically possible a system could exist with 60 worlds life could exist on.
