THE ULTIMATE ENGINEERED SOLAR SYSTEM

When a solar system forms, there’s no reason planets should preferentially occur in the habitable zone, and the TRAPPIST-1 system is unusual in having as many as three planets there. But from a theoretical perspective, is there an upper limit to how many planets can be squeezed into the Goldilocks zone? That’s a question that astrophysicist Sean Raymond addressed on his blog a few years ago. It turns out there is indeed a theoretical limit, beyond which the system becomes unstable because the planets are too close together.

Raymond came up with what he calls the ‘Ultimate Engineered Solar System’, with a grand total of 412 planets in the habitable zone arranged around eight concentric orbits that rotate in alternately prograde and retrograde directions.