Events
Not all systems in the universe are like ours, the Solar System. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it has only one star, and this is why planets have formed around the Sun, and some of them have life. The fact that the system must have one star is almost a prerequisite for planet formation.
Single stars are the key to a stable planetary system. Planets can also form in systems with multiple stars, but the gravitational force of additional stars pushes them towards their parent star. The result is a collision between a planet and a star, or the temperature on the planet's surface is too high. Another disadvantage is that additional stars can also influence the formation of comets, and the planet will not receive the right amount of water that comets carry into space.
In 1991, astronomers conducted a study to find out how many single stars there are in certain systems. As a result, it turned out that there are few of them, and systems with several stars are more common in the universe. But a recent study found that this is far from the case.
It is not so easy to determine whether one or more stars exist in a particular system. Stars are often so close to each other that they can't be seen through a telescope. Astronomers then have to monitor periodic changes in the star's light spectrum, which are caused by another star crossing the orbit of one star.
It was previously believed that if the system had a star the size of our Sun, there were also several other stars whose orbits intersected. Astronomers now doubt that as well.
Deepak Raghavan from the University of Georgia and his colleagues studied 454 stars similar to the Sun and found that approximately 56 percent of they're single stars, and only 44 percent have another star.
As can be seen, the results of a recent study contradict the conclusions of astronomers made in 1991. There may be several reasons for this. First, fewer stars were explored in 1991. Secondly, astronomers then suggested that some systems might have several stars that could not be detected by the equipment then available.