How special is our solar system? Is our sun unique? What about the number, arrangement, and composition of our planets – are they weird, or what astronomers expect to see? Is our planetary neighborhood "normal"? Perhaps more importantly, is there even such a thing as "normal," at the scale of the universe?



As Universe Today's Fraser Cain explains in his latest video, our solar sytem shares a lot in common with other known star systems, but it has its fair share of unusual characteristics. Our system's asteroid belt, and the distribution of its planetary types, for example, seem to set it apart. But how unusual does this make us, really?