Scientists Reveal 'Cousin' Solar System

"Scientists announced on Tuesday the discovery of a fifth planet in a distant star system that now looks like a "cousin" to our own.

Known as 55 Cancri, the sun-like star harbors the most number of planets ever discovered outside our solar system.

"We now know that our sun and its family of planets is not unusual," study team member Geoffrey Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley told reporters in a teleconference. "Architecturally, this new planetary system is reminiscent of ours, albeit souped-up. All the planets in this new system are more massive by factors of 5 to 10."

Four of the planets had been previously detected, but the existence of the fifth planet took 18 years to confirm. It is about 45 times more massive than Earth and might be similar to Saturn in its composition and appearance.

55 Cancri is 41 light-years away in the direction of the constellation Cancer and is visible with binoculars. The system contains a clutch of four inner planets that are separated from an outer planet by a huge gap.

"We haven't found a twin of our solar system, because the four planets close to the star are all the size of Neptune or bigger," Marcy said."

First of all let me reiterate one of my fondest hopes. Childish but germane. Since being old enough to look into the skies and wonder, I've wished for contact with extraterrestrial life forms.

Enrico Fermi said it wasn't going to happen; our galaxy is reasonable young and others have had a 10 billion year head start so where ARE all of the intelligent life forms anyway.

The "cousin" solar system this story speaks of is far from a close relation, as virtually every planet they've so far found has been a gas giant, and life as we know it cannot thrive on a gas giant.

And while the spaces twixt and tween the big ones MIGHT contain earth-sized rocky worlds, not a one of them harbors a high-tech intelligence.

If they did, we'd have long since been listening to their radio and television broadcasts.

There may very well be rudimentary civilizations, but for sure there isn't one waving back at us, and that beggars an explanation, albeit an easy one.

We're unique. And alone. The chemical process that nurtured humankind hasn't happened in any of the older solar systems (see Fermi), so why should we expect to find it upon similar aged or younger ones.

Absence of proof is not proof of absence. Continued absence of proof DOES indicate a certain degree of rarity, and while discoveries such as this one are interesting they add to the negative side of the ledger regarding the possibilities of intelligent life forms other than what may be found upon Sol 3.