There are several caveats, of course. "We emphasize that we do not consider these Titius-Bode-like ’laws’ as having any other meaning than a possible signature of formation processes," the astronomers insist. Such laws may only apply to relatively small planets relatively close to their suns. Systems dominated by very large "super-Jupiter" planets are probably far more chaotic, with gravitational tussles causing planets to end up in all sorts of strange orbits. And Dr Lovis and his colleagues note that "the physics of planet formation is so diverse and complex that we do not expect any universal rule on planet ordering to exist."
Still, the idea that there might be something to Bode’s law after all has been advanced by a few researchers in recent years as a serious theoretical possibility. As planet-finding technology improves, more planets are found around other stars and the number of known multiplanetary systems continues to increase, this modern-day revival of Bode’s law can now be put to the test.