Could there be other solar systems in the Milky Way?

Answer 1

Our sun is just one of 200-400 billion stars in the Milky Way. Whether there are

other systems of planets orbiting other stars is really a question of how common

is it for planets to form. It's a tough question to answer, because it's so fiendishly

tough to detect a planet that's close to a distant star.

But it's not impossible any more! Techniques capable of detecting distant planets

have been available for over 10 years now, and they are finding that planets are

actually almost common! Something like 700 planets have now been confirmed,

located at other stars in the Milky Way, and more are being discovered almost

every month. So the answer is: Not only could there be, there are !

Only one thing though ... they probably should not be called "solar" systems.

"Solar" refers to the group of objects gravitationally bound to the star called

"Sol", which is our sun. Planets and other things that are bound to a different

star, if they have any collective name at all, should probably be connected

somehow to the name of their particular star, like maybe the "Sirian" system,

"Alpha Centaurian" system, "Betelgeusian" systems, "Polarian" system, or hey,

the "Regular" system, in Leo.