Last night I watched this (becoming) infamous TV program and, once again, was with the host's comments on a contestant's right answer. The question was, " True or false, the Sun is the only star in our solar system?" Commenting on the contestant's right answer, Foxworthy then stated, "... the stars we see at night in the sky are actually from other solar systems". WHAT?
PBS and a lot of other "educational" programs on TV are also going down the drain with such pseudo-science nonsense.
Being a program targeting the education level of a 5th grader, I can't imagine what nonsense is going on in colleges today, since the producers of these idiot programs, I'm sure, were boasting all kinds of degrees when applying for the job.
What a sorry state the world is coming to when we can't even get 5th grade education right for our children. Mr Q

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Meade DS-10 (10" newt)
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The statement that the stars we see at night are from other solar systems is correct, although maybe stated poorly. They are actually the center of their own solar systems.

Why do you consider that to be pseudo-science nonsense?

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"Arrrgh, the laws of physics be a harsh mistress!" -- Bender

Well, since there is only one star called Sol, technically they are not in other Sollar systems. But that's getting a might bit pedantic.

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I think that is a little pedantic, because stars are frequently referred to as suns. And a solar system has to have a sun.

Don't we call systems with planets as solar systems? Or is there another phrase in use, such as extra-solar systems?

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"I'm as accurate as any psychic. And I'm a cartoon!" -- Squidward

"Arrrgh, the laws of physics be a harsh mistress!" -- Bender

Mr. Q,

Welcome to BAUT and all but Jeez mon, lighten up! You'll live longer, really.

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"Stellar systems", for those who don't refer to other stars with planets as "other suns". If you do call those "suns", then there's nothing wrong with "solar".

But maybe the real problem is that not all stars actually have planets and such orbiting them at all. Just a star by itself isn't much of a system.

Not really. While we can't know yet, unless this system is really freakish, virtually all stars would have something orbiting them. How many billions of objects orbit the sun? Eight planets, millions of asteroids, billions of comet fragments, billions of Kuiper belt and Oort cloud objects...

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Doesn't really have to be, does it?

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i just had a flashback to the episode of Family Guy where Peter thought he was super intelligent because he won a game of Trivial Pursuit when Lois was reading him questions out of the preschool edition. he said that Lois's dinner was "boring and pedantic" or something like that because he saw some smart guys on PBS say it..

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Maybe he said "... the stars we see at night in the sky are actually from other 'solar systems' ".

we have 'Are You Smarter Then a 10-Year-Old?' in the UK.
I recall: which planet has only one moon? She didn't know the answer.
The contestants are always so dumb it's depressing. So I don't watch it anymore.

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I can't lighten up. It's the only thing that keeps my blood flowing in old age (I don't drink - maybe I should start?). Mr Q

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Meade DS-10 (10" newt)
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Alderaan. Duh.

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That's no moon...

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Sorry, but who knows if ALL stars have a solar system? We don't. So when he says "the stars in the night sky", I have to assume the statement means all of the stars, which me that such answers on an educational oriented program are allowed. Sure I'm knit-picking but if we don't when learning something, how will we ever know if the info is correct in the first place?
Critical thinking - The best tool in such a pseudo-science rampant society (in the media, anyways). I say pseudo-science because of other such idiotic statements on TV, like Bill Nyes, the science guy, who stated on his show that fossil fuels come from dinosaur bones. I say to such pseudo-science. Mr Q

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Meade DS-10 (10" newt)
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Now, these definitions are specific to our solar system (they usually have secondary definitions referring to "similar" systems to our own). But what I want you to note is the star is always included within the system, as are everything else that happens to be orbiting it, including wandering dust and solar ejecta.

A single star with nothing orbiting it would still be a solar system.

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He said "all the stars we see at night", which, if he was implying "all the stars we see at night from our studios in L.A." then he was only talking about 4 or 5 tops.



-V

I'm confused. Is the whole point of this thread that you think he should have said that we do not know yet whether all stars have planets?

I'd think it a pretty good bet that most or even almost all stars have planets.

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"I'm as accurate as any psychic. And I'm a cartoon!" -- Squidward

"Arrrgh, the laws of physics be a harsh mistress!" -- Bender

Whether they have planets or not, it's a better bet that all stars have at minimum a disk. Since stars by definition form from collapsed dust fields, it would be some kind of physics to find a star with absolutely nothing orbiting it. Whether all stars have enough debris and enough time to form planets remains to be seen on a case-by-case basis.

collapsed "gas fields" actually--remember there are plenty of first-generation stars left. ok, they might have all-ice comets or something though.

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)