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An artist's concept of a planetary system
A 'planetary system' consists of the various non-
stellar objects
orbiting a
star such as
planets,
moons,
asteroids,
meteoroids,
comets, and
cosmic dust. The
Sun and its planetary system, which includes
Earth, is known as the
Solar System.
Origin and Evolution
Planetary systems around sun-like stars are generally believed to form as part of the same process which results in
star formation. Some early theories involved another star passing extremely close to the sun, and drawing material out from it which then coalesced to form the planets. However, the probability of such a near collision is now known to be far too low to make this a viable model. Accepted theories today argue that planetary systems form from a
solar nebula
Some planetary systems are very unlike our own, however: planetary systems around
pulsars have been inferred from slight variations in the period of the pulses of electromagnetic radiation. Pulsars are formed in violent
supernova explosions, and a normal planetary system could not possibly survive such a blast — planets would either evaporate, or the sudden loss of most of the mass of the central star would see them escape the gravitational hold of the star. One theory is that existing stellar companions were almost entirely evaporated by the supernova blast, leaving behind planet-sized bodies. Alternatively, planets may somehow form in the
accretion disk surrounding pulsars.
List of planetary systems
Main articles: List of stars with confirmed extrasolar planets

Artist Concept of a distant planetary system
★
Solar System – The
Sun and its planetary system, the first such system discovered
★
PSR B1257+12 – the first extrasolar planetary system discovered, the first
pulsar planetary system discovered, the first multi exoplanet system discovered
★
Upsilon Andromedae – the first multiplanet extrasolar planetary system discovered around a
main sequence star, found to be so in April 1999
★
PSR B1620-26 – the first multistar planetary system discovered.
★
55 Cancri – the largest extra solar planetary system discovered (4 planets, as of
August 2004, along with a distant stellar companion)
[1]
★
Gliese 876 – the first system around a
red dwarf star and the first discovered to be in an
orbital resonance
★
HD 69830 – found to have three Neptune-mass planets and an asteroid belt, all within 1 AU
[2] [3]
★
2M1207 – the first imaged system and the first
brown dwarf system with a planet discovered
[4]
★
Gliese 581 - first extrasolar system discovered with a planet located within the
habitable zone (
Gliese 581 c)
[5]
★
Mu Arae - The system's innermost planet was the first "hot Neptune" to be discovered
★
HD 188753 - The first
triple star planetary system discovered
★
HD 37124
★
HD 12661
★
HD 73526
★
47 Ursae Majoris
★
Epsilon Eridani
★
14 Herculis
See also
★
Extrasolar planet
★
List of stars with confirmed extrasolar planets
★
Stellar nursery
★
Stars and planetary systems in fiction
References
1. Found: Solar System Like Our Own
2. NASA's Spitzer Telescope Sees Signs of Alien Asteroid Belt
3.
4. Likely First Photo of Planet Beyond the Solar System
5. New planet found: It might hold life