00:04Astronomers have so far discovered 5,284 exoplanets out in the vastness of the universe.
00:11We've found duos with planets orbiting tiny stars, as well as uninhabitable wasteland planets circling their system's center all alone.
00:18But we've never found anything quite like ours.
00:20Most of these are either gas giants or ice planets, called mini-Neptunes, not rocky worlds like Earth.
00:26So it begs the question, is our solar system unique?
00:28Likely not.
00:29But the problem is we're only now just starting to really discover more and more exoplanets.
00:33The first one was only identified around 30 years ago, meaning we're still in the infant stages of discovery.
00:39That's because as our technology and telescopes get better, we can more easily and accurately point them out.
00:44Right now astronomers detect planets by noticing the stars they orbit dimming periodically.
00:49The star dims as the planet passes, letting experts know that something is there.
00:53But the issue right now is we often find planet types that don't even exist in our own planetary system.
00:57Which Daniel Bayless, an astronomer tell Science Alert,
01:00Super Earths that look a little bit like Earth but have double the radius?
01:03We don't have anything like that.
01:04We don't have these mini-Neptunes.
01:06So I think it's fair enough to say that there are some very common planets that we don't see in
01:10our own solar system.
01:11Meaning at the moment our solar system seems pretty special.
01:14But with new tech like the James Webb Space Telescope, we might soon find out that it's not.
01:20We are busy with new things for now.
01:22Oh my goodness.
01:23And the 번 Carl, we tell us this down here.
