Thanks for watching everyone and thanks to our sponsor, CuriosityStream. You can sign up for CuriosityStream here: curiositystream.com/CoolWorlds. Let us us know down what your thoughts on this video! Are there any other aspects about the Solar System you think could be rare or common?

Most of the stars out there are red dwarves, so being around a star like the Sun is already a big abnormality. Being on an outer branch of a spiral galaxy is another big abnormality - most stars would be in the galactic core.

Really appreciate the work you do on this channel Professor Kipping. You're undoubtedly inspiring a new generation of students to look up at the stars in wonder and amazement. Keep it up!

The addition of the forest background is soooo cool! I love to see that there's a large amount of effort being put into these videos

I love the idea of squinting at a blindingly dim light in a roaring and infinite dark, waiting for it to blink. And when it does, celebrating with fever dream maths and statistics

I think we're pretty unusual in the sense that we have access to such amazing content like this

Aside from being in the Goldilocks zone, circular orbits, and having a gas giant shield I suspect a large stabilizing moon is a prerequisite for complex life. Looking at our limited sample size I imagine such moons are rare. The odds of a collision or capture being at just the right angle seems improbable.

"...the only way for the universe to know itself". Such a cool line. Reminds me of the most profound graffiti I ever read in a truck stop. "Man is a manifestation of the universe contemplating itself". Thank you for such great content.

I'd say the earth - moon relationship is way more special than the solar system.

Whenever I think of alien life, I don't question wether it exists, but rather how far away it does...

It seems like many scientists are afraid of the weak anthropic principle, maybe because the name unfortunately could imply humanity in particular. But stripped down to the basics, it simply says that intelligent life is where it is, because it can't be anywhere else. And that is regardless of the odds, which thus precludes the use of the mediocrity principle in the discussion. I like that this video does not shy away from that, and in fact challenges us to consider it as a more realistic starting point.

Very fascinating. I'm glad you mentioned our moon. I read, long ago, that our large moon helps stabilize the Earth's axis. And that relative stability is what makes complex life forms possible by having a slower change to climate, which is needed for lifeforms to adapt and flourish. In the same place, I read that Jupiter intercepts things from the outer system which would likely bombard us. Same with the moon.

20:00 even "sun-like stars" = only 10% (according to Wikipedia "Solar analog"-page). So 10 sunlike stars with 10% of those having Jupiter-sized (1% of all stars); only 25% have a Jupiter-like orbit (so 0.25%); with systems with a Jupiter but without a super-Earth/sub-Neptune being the left over of 1.2+/-0.5 (most favourable option is 70%), this results in a star system "like ours" (in terms of just looking at the Jupiter part (wayy too opimistic, I guess) is only 0.175%. I guess we should be happy that there are a lot of stars.

The greatest thoughts and discoveries of the Universe to ever unfold, presented to us in storyform through pristine narration, always. I just wish you would post more often.

This man has the best voice on UKposts!!!

Omg I love those closing arguments. Makes me feel unique, at least once.

“Somewhere in me is a curiosity sensor. I want to know what's over the next hill. You know, people can live longer without food than without information. Without information, you'd go crazy.” i love this channel 👾

Thank you, Professor. This video was.. So enlightening and just mind-stimulatingly wonderful.

Nice Carl Sagan quote there 😊 My absolute favorite quote. "We are made of starstuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself."

I don't know why, but your work gives me so much hope. The more we learn, the more astonishing it all is. Beautiful and informative video!

Huge thank you for putting up these videos up, each one is a joy to watch. Please keep up the amazing work you're doing!

What a great teacher you are. Even if, because of my own intellectual limitations, I only get 10% of what you are explaining, my understanding of "where we are, how we got here and WHY" is enriched 100%. Thank you for reaching out to the masses and giving the wannabe nerds a place to call home!

Happy to see you’ve posted a new video on the topic! Thanks, Professor! Excited to watch it.

Man, I absolutely love how you always manage to end your videos with a deeply profound and thought-provoking message.

You are truly one of the best content providers on youtube, and your content, style, and person offer every form of appeal. Keep them coming!

Simply amazing content and production. Thank you for making this available.

Great video. An honest assessment of the uniqueness of our solar system. It's refreshingly honest compared to discussions where it's taken as a given that we can't be anything but normal.

Almost all of the media I consume these days aside from reading is here on UKposts. I have a LOT of channel subscriptions, most of which I actively watch and participate in their respective communities and I have to say, this is the best content out there. Everything about it is just wonderful, my only complaint is that there's not more of it but such is the price of quality. I feel like you've picked up Carl Sagan's torch and ran with it and I'm really thankful to you for doing what you do.

Professor I don't know how you keep up with your work schedule and make new videos so often but I profoundly enjoy your views. I am a finance professor, your videos provide a little breathing air from the usual financial markets stuff. Lucky to be able to watch you from 8000 km away.

One thing I've always struggled with is "How do you objectively define unusual?". Is flipping coins and getting ten heads in a row unusual, compared to getting say HTTTHTHHTT? Is an egg falling on the floor and forming a perfect circle of debris unusual, compared to some other "messier" but specific distribution of debris? Or in this case, are the presence of sub-Neptunes, a Jupiter analog, and near-circular orbits a valid - and unique - way to define unusual stellar systems? If we were to randomly pick some other stellar system, and have good data on its planets and their orbits, would we stand a good chance of finding IT was unusual compared to other systems - but based on some other set of variables than the three above? Could it be that inhabitants of MOST stellar systems would find theirs "unusual", but in ways very different than the ones we've noted? Or to put it another way, whether we are unusual is closely tied to the question of "what variables determine fertile ground for life to develop?" In that regard, I DO think circular orbits is a valid one to pick out. And presence of a Jupiter could be important as well. However I don't think we can say one way or the other regarding presence of sub-Neptunes. Still, we don't know what OTHER variables might play important roles in opening the doors to life, even in our own system, and certainly not in others. In the landscape of possible combinations of variables, there might be MANY islands that are friendly to life -- some of which have virtually nothing in common with our own.

The production value of these videos is on another level. Content is as well.

I’m digging the outdoor lecture hall, Doc.

As always, extremely on point and perfectly explained. Regarding "mediocrity", I totally agree that reasoning by means of pure philosophical principles is simply not as strong as observational data. In one case we are dealing with our internal workings about what we think it ought to be and in the later we are dealing with nature explaining us what it really is. There could be "others" like us or we could be alone, but in the end we would never know by pure idalistic reasoning, we need experiments and observations to start the conversation with nature. No amount of mediocrity, copernican and "large odds because large numbers" arguments will get us closer to the answer. We only have one data point and it tells us that Earth-like planets are possible outcomes of physical processes in the universe and with certainty (that's it for the moment). In any case lets dig into the philosophy here for a moment: The principle of mediocrity is, IMO, very vague in its definition and we should stop claiming it makes for a humble view of our place in the Universe. Is it really humble to assume that everything in the cosmos must be similar to what humans are experience around them? This reminds me of the time when Huygens speculated about aliens on the moons of Jupiter and assumed they would be anthropomorphic, have sail ships and obviusly dress in consonance with 17th century european fashion. That is a very antropocentric (if not ethnocentric) and anti-copernican way in which the principle of mediocrity can be applied. I think the principle of mediocrity goes against the idea that "we are not the center of the Universe" instead of supporting it. I also think there are some statistical fallacies working behind the scenes: If we assume a uniform distribution of any variable with small random fluctuations then we would be right to conclude that a single value of that distribution is representative of the entirety of values, we would be right to use the mediocrity principle. But here, with Earth like planets, we are using it to conclude that the distribution should be quite uniform (which is the premise on which the mediocrity principle works on). If your conclusion is your premise then the entire reasoning lacks any relevance and is just a convoluted way of saying "I have faith in this statement". We don't know the actual distribution of Earth like planets, we don't know if their existence is highly dependent on stellar characteristics, systems architectures, etc... We could use the mediocrity principle if we assumed that the existence of Earth-like planets was largely independent of any other metrics, but that is not how scientific reasoning works. Earth and Earth-like planets are formed by mechanisms that need to have basic components to work. We don't know how many of those components are needed to actually make one of these planets nor how many different mechanism could give a an Earth-like planet nor what is their frequency of occurrence, but for sure there's a lot of possible processes and lots of possible outcomes, and if an historical principle of science has to be applied here is that science is a way of discovering how diverse the processes and the outcomes are in nature. Using the mediocrity principle for the serach of Earth-like planets, or extraterrestrial life has always been a very poor way of understanding copernicanism. I think this is also interesting for another common argument; the large numbers - large odds fallacy. When you tell people that there are around 10^25 planets and large moons in the observable universe they tend to jump and exclaim "how could we be alone?". This is funny for many reasons but, IMO, in the context of what we are dealing with here it makes me think that when people hear "10^25 planets" they are thinking "10^25 Earths". They project themselves and our world to everything instantly because we in general don't have a sense of the diversity we could encounter. We just assume the unifrom distribution right away and get deceived by that. Almost no one thinks the other extreme: "there could be 10^25 worlds, each of those with completely different chemical processes, physical phenomena, geologic histories and atmospheric evolutions, like we found on our own Solar System (with almost each planet and Moon having their own identity and very little clustering in parameter space, with almost no correlation between properties between them)", but perhaps that should be the way of thinking. Perhaps the universe is largely devoid of life forms and Earth-like planets and the vast diversity of worlds we will discover in the next century could tell us a story where there are physical fenomena as outstanding and spectacular as life itself but that have nothing to do with life. perhaps we are too egocentric to realise. Or perhaps not. We will see what the instruments have to say.

it feels like christmas when you upload a video, and moreso when its a rare earth video. thanks for your pioneer work

Wow. One of the most fascinating astronomy videos I've ever watched. The next decade is going to be very exciting with the JWST and other advanced telescopes, hopefully we will get a better idea of the rate of habitable zone planets around sun like stars, and also red dwarfs since they are far more common. Lots of unanswered questions still about the potential for life, but it's so intriguing that it seems like our solar system is not a dime a dozen. Amazing stuff, we are privileged to be able to start to piece together such profound mysteries in our age.

Love this. So beautifully done with a beautiful and powerful message!

A steady, precise and clear discussion of the question of the title. Good job. My highest recommendation.

One of my favorite channels and Another great video. Thanks for the hard work you are putting in on these. They really are enjoyable

Fantastic and awe-inspiring work as usual! Bravo 👏

I was watching the video and I literally had the same thought, that “the universe is trying to tell us something “ just before you said it! A very informative video. Obviously still a lot to learn, but I’m becoming ever more supportive of the Rare Earth hypothesis as a solution to the Fermi Paradox.

No Prof. You and your team are the ones who are special. Thank you for another brilliant lesson..... 🙏

Another amazing video. I am so grateful for a channel like this, always gets me thinking about things in a different way and questioning the 'normal' thoughts about the universe and our place in it. Truly the definition of real science, no bias and an ability to completely accept the evidence and its potential consequences, no matter how much it goes against the grain of typical theories

I really enjoy the topics you choose and how you break them down! You're one of my inspirations for my silly science fiction ideas.

“Listen closely & you can hear that the universe is trying to tell us something profound” 😊😊

Simply amazing. Thank you professor Kipping

David, given your field of specialism, I can’t imagine how exciting James Webb must be for you. Have you ever looked forward to anything as much? Because for me, I’m already foaming at the mouth with excitement!

This was by far one of the most intriguing and oddly heartwarming videos I've ever seen on youtube.

This was such an excellent synopsis of the present state of our collective understanding regarding exoplanets (and the relative rarity of our own solar system, in terms of its particular characteristics). Thank you.

9:10 You know, you don't save any time or effort by saying "JWST" instead of "James Webb Space Telescope". They have the same number of syllables. And observations like this are the reason I'm single.

Imagine walking in the woods and seeing this guy talking to a tripod quietly.

First video I’ve watched on your channel and I gotta say. WONDERFUL WORK.

I love the way Prof. Kipping really explains all of this in great detail it really is mind blowing and amazing!! Thank You.

This is great. Both informative and enjoyable. You may have covered this in another video, but I've heard that it was recently determined that the rarity of phosphorus in the universe places an unexpectedly large restriction on both the occurrence of life in the universe and the total "biological carrying capacity" of our galaxy. I'd love to get your thoughts on this.

This channel has got me more into learning about astronomy and space. Thank you so much for that. Love all your video's. Please keep producing them as this helps people gain so much insight. Also keep up the good work up in your lab, its impressive.

What thought provoking ending. I love when the audience is left with a profound question to ponder. Thanks for the great presentation!

10:32 this seems like an odd data point to bring up because of the previously mentioned short observation window. If you pull from four years of data only planets

One of my thoughts that keeps coming back to me: Earth is highly unusual. It does not have the starting core material that it would have collected in natural planetary formation. The planet that collided with us, resulting in our Moon formation, resulted in approximately 1.3 times the Earths inner core material than would be normal. Maybe it takes this injection of additional material, that keeps the geology, and magnetosphere active- long enough for Life to take root. The other planets in our own solar system, with their typical formation amount of core materials, have by this time solidified, losing their magnetosphere, and their atmosphere, resulting in worlds like Mars. Maybe Mars is the typical planet model- its formative amount of interior material will never result in the world being geologically active and shielded 4.5 billion years later. the core will solidify, and the atmosphere surface water lost. Earth continues on with a strong magnetic field protecting it highlights our worlds uniqueness. With this model, how likely are other worlds Out There likely to have any sort of Magnetosphere, any sort of retained atmosphere, after a typical 4.5 billion years for life to evolve?

Damn. Probably one of the best videos I’ve seen on this channel. Keep it up!

I really enjoy these videos; thanks for keeping up with them!

When you spoke about us being the universe I had an epiphany. The universe created us in the Big Bang. Our molecules were created by it and now here we are with consciousness. A consciousness of the universe

a minor point: you say the % of G star like our sun is 10%, but when I look at 250 closest stars, which show more red dwarfs stars than bigger collections, it is only about %5 of the closer stars which are G. More over our Sun is solo, which is only about 25-30% of all G stars - do not know if that has an effect, but it makes our system more rare. And in addition, our Sun is a very calm star, many G and other stars have flares, we are not certain why our Sun is this way. And I am sure you can name many other things that make our Solar System rare, you just did not have time for it.

Another great video! You always seem to answer the questions I find I’m asking myself!! Thank you!!!

Your narration is soothing and quality of the video is exceptional. Instantly subscribed to your channel. Kind request to please post a video describing the "Axis of evil" problem in cosmology.

Love these videos, the rational and well-argued points like these are as rare as our planet's features may be. Other channels basically serve a wish-fulfillment agenda, and try to reassure our anxiety of solitude by proposing a swarm of aliens lurking everywhere. Its refreshing to be treated as an adult.

Wow, that's a great video. I very much like the presenter. He seems extremely knowledgeable and serious. He isn't "giving the public what the public wants to have" - a million civilizations in our own galaxy - and instead he carefully presents the serious prospect that, yes, we might be alone in the Milky Way. Thank you so much for your serious, honest words!

Adore the clarity and rigor with which you led this journey through the statistics. Yet another video speaking to profound and existential questions, leaving deep emotional echoes as I contemplate the implications. On a par with "Civilization Lifetimes", and "Journey to the End of the Universe." "Stay thoughtful and stay curious." ...and stay treasuring this singular beautiful home which gives us life. Thank you to you and your team and to all who help support this channel and your work.

I am always happy to see new videos from this channel. Kudos!

Gosh. I also remember hearing somewhere that the time it took for 1 single cell organism to develop into multicellular life was something like Billions of years. Which I find odd. Like if all the conditions for life to develop are met. Then surely it should be less of a seremdipitous occurance that created multicellular life than is evidenced. It really seems like the universe is not designed for life haha. Also, what are your favourite exo- planets? Do we have enough information to determine characteristics in a meaningful way? and are we close to being able to increase our ability to discern exo planet characteristics?

Could life be present on Moons of Jupiter analogs with eccentric orbits and how could it adapt to the drastic changes in distance to it's Star? Just staying curious here. Love your work Professor Kipping. You are an inspiration to many.

When i come to this channel my anxiety goes away and mind opens up. Thank you Professor.

Bro you are a absolute beast...a gentleman and a scholar, and quite frankly one of the most passionate and genuine conduits of thought provoking information I have had the pleasure of learning from. Touche sir

People have been obsessed for decades with the idea that we're not "special", despite having no evidence either way. It's good to see the discussion becoming evidence-based

I'm worried by our (humankind's) tendency and ability to destroy ourselves. In my opinion - we are an especially bad solution to the universe's need for self-awareness. :(

I do appreciate the use of data, bravo! What a beautiful outcome!

Getting goosebumps at the end of every video you upload!! Thank you for this amazing content

Existential crisis said hi

That’s why I appreciate’ Living’ in this special, magical world 🌍👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿🥰🥰

The opening credits/title sequence for Cool Worlds Lab where those four objects circle an unseen mass has now taken on for me the same level of emotional anticipation and wonder as the opening credits for logos of MGM Lion's roaring, the cute lamp for PIXAR, 20th Century Fox and it's searchlights with brass heavy orchestra, and of course Universal Pictures with Earth spinning at sunrise. Just magic and meaning.

Another well made documentary, thank you! I like seeing diagrams too, they explain a lot, especially when they include error bars instead of just points so we get an idea of the range of values the 'true data' might have. I was wondering how many light years away from Earth's system would Kepler be able to detect the Earth - or how close would another Sun with another Earth need to be for Kepler to detect it... and would the JWST or any other planet-hunting telescope be able to detect an Earth size planet from a lot further away? If Kepler has investigated 200,000 stars that must be quite a lot of cubic light years of space it has covered! I'd love to hear more about the hunt for Exomoons too!

It is believed that the reason we don’t have a “Hot Jupiter” is because Saturn formed and pulled it back from it spiralling inwards towards the Sun. So to me Saturn will always be king 🙃

Thank you so much, Cool worlds! Very, very cool!

Good work. I feel like there are a lot of variables that get overlooked in the idea that Earth and our solar system are typically from the activity of red dwarves to the goldilocks zone between having plate tectonics and a core active enough to protect the planet from it's star but not so active that a supervolcano resets civilization back to the stone age every time it tries to get started.

I wish it was possible to take an actual class with Professor Kipping. I always feel like I have learned much after watching one of his videos. I also find his tone to be calming and very easy to listen to. I could sit through hours and hours of his lectors. I guess in a way I have, I have lost count of how many of his videos I have watched.

I can't express how much I love you and your content. I don't get a chance to speak about this stuff with people I know, so this really scratches an itch. On another note, if I can humbly suggest a subject for a video, if you haven't done so already, I'd love to see a terraforming Mars, right up to adjusting gravity. I think it would complement your terraforming Venus vid. Thanks.

I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS. KEEP UP THE GOOD DETAILS!!!

great explanation of exoplanet astronomy. Have so much respect for scientists that put their whole life into expanding scientific knowledge of our local area in space

Good video buddy loved the documentary, it made my day 🧡

The questions you asked in the introduction were exactly what I was asking in my head one after another lol

Prof. Kipping, you are very special to many of us, most intellects are not as calming as your voice and explanations.

It’s honestly cool and philosophical in a way that the more we get out there in the universe, we find out more about ourselves and our existence than we ever could simply staying here.

Small Correction: An eccentricity greater than 1 does not correspond to a parabolic trajectory. An eccentricity greater than 1 corresponds to a hyperbolic trajectory. Parabolic trajectories are that special case of an eccentricity of exactly 1. Eccentricity of Conic Sections e = 0: Circle 0

Incredibly important and thoughtful analysis

Great video. I feel that if we also be factor in the other important criteria that enable life to exist, like you briefly touch on towards the end of the video, it would show we have a very rare solar system if not unique. This surely leads to questions of whether this solar system was created to host life.

not only are these videos incredibly interesting, your voice soothes me and puts me to sleep and it’s ACTUALLY helping my severe sleep disorders

As usual, great video Professor Kipping!

this channel is all quality, keep it up!

Dam i love your videos so much, the way the videos are put together, your cool calm demeaner, the subject matter, makes for an attention captivating joyful experience, keep em comin, your hard work is noticed and appreciated.

Such fantastic quality videos. Keep it up 👌

Thanks for such incredible videos!!!

@Cool Worlds. Cool content. Just found you today , so it looks like I've got lot's of good viewing to catch up on. " MAY a dunked biscuit never float in your tea "