Lucky Earth survived cosmic pinball (NIBIRU)

[link to www.bbc.com]

Hunting for alien planets is big business. Since the first exoplanet was discovered in 1995, astronomers around the world have been searching for those elusive Earth-like planets that could harbour life.

The tally of planets found is staggering. So far, more than 1,800 confirmed planets have been discovered orbiting around other stars in our galaxy (the latest figure from Nasa is 1,816 planets around 1,117 stars).

Among them, are a few rocky planets in the magical "Goldilocks" zone where water can remain in the liquid state, and life could evolve.

It's no surprise to astronomers that these planets exist. But what has come as a shock is that many of these exoplanets seem to break all the rules.