On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 09:53:33 +0000, Mike Dworetsky wrote:


Assumption: The inclinations of such systems to the line of sight to Earth
are random.

Is that so? I could be wrong, but does the plane of rotation of the solar
system not lie in the same plane as the galaxy? When solar systems form
does the rotation of the galaxy impart radial velocity into the disk that
eventually forms the star and its attendant planets?

If that were the case, then planetary systems would all tend to rotate in
the same or similar planes.

Just conjecture, perhaps someone who knows what they are talking about
could chip in.