| MadSci Network: Astronomy |
Reagan, The reason you've had a hard time finding a number for the masses of other solar systems is that this is something we simply don't know yet! The most sucessful planetary detection technique is best at detecting large, close-in planets, and most stars with planets that we know about only have a single detectable planet. That doesn't mean there aren't more -- just that we can't see their effects with current techniques. You can find our about the known extrasolar planets at http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/planets/ In any case, planet masses are usually pretty small compared to the star's mass -- e.g. Jupiter's mass (more than all the other planets, asteroids etc put together) is still only about a thousandth that of the Sun. So you wouldn't go too far wrong by assuming the mass of a solar system to be that of its star alone. Pauline
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