Solar System May Be Uncommon.

• Position: Brief Article

ASTRONOMY

2. Scott Gaudi, an astronomer at Ohio State University, Columbus, is helping to answer a question mankind has asked since Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus first proclaimed that Earth orbited the sun: Could many other stars have planetary systems like ours? The answer may not please those who believe such planetary systems are required for the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence.

Research by Gaudi and his colleagues at the Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork (PLANET) "seem to indicate that whatever happened when our solar system formed was not the norm" elsewhere in the galaxy. They calculate that less than 45%...