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The nearest planetary system to our own has two asteroid belts in addition to a previously known ice belt, according to the latest observations by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. The location and structure of the asteroid belts relative to the system’s central star, Epsilon Eridani, suggests the existence of earth-like planets. “We certainly haven’t seen it yet, but if its solar system is anything like ours, then there should be planets like ours,” says astronomer Massimo Marengo of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics [USA Today].

The Epsilon Edidani system has long been of interest to astronomers and science fiction fans alike because of its proximity (10.5 light-years) and resemblance to our solar system. The newly discovered asteroid belts give the system an appearance even more like our own. The inner asteroid belt looks identical to ours in terms of material, and it orbits at 3 astronomical units (AU) from Epsilon Eridani — the same distance between the sun and the rocky asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. (An astronomical unit equals the average Earth-sun distance of 93 million miles, or about 150 million km.) Epsilon Eridani’s second asteroid belt is 20 AU from the star, or about where Uranus is in relation to our sun, and it is crowded with as much mass as Earth’s moon [Science News]. The outer asteroid belt was captured directly by Spitzer’s infrared cameras and the inner asteriod belt, though too far from the cameras, was indicated by the thermal energy from its infrared emissions.

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Astronomers think they have taken the first picture ever of a planet orbiting a star very similar to our own sun. However, the new planet itself appears to be quite different from our Earth. Located around 500 light-years from Earth, the planet in the snapshot is around eight times bigger than Jupiter, the biggest in our solar system and lies more than ten times further from its star than the sun does from Neptune [Telegraph]. Researchers were surprised to discover that the planet orbits at such a distance from its star, and say the discovery could upend accepted theories of planet formation.

The researchers say they’ll keep studying the object they spotted to confirm that the planet is in fact orbiting around the star, as opposed to the possibility, however unlikely, that the two objects just happen to lie in the same area of the sky at roughly the same distance from us. “Of course it would be premature to say that the object is definitely orbiting this star, but the evidence is extremely compelling,” [lead researcher David] Lafrenière said [SPACE.com].

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It may be getting old hat for some astronomy researchers, but the discovery of new exoplanets—planets orbiting stars far from our little solar system—can still send a shiver of excitement through space buffs. And today was a jackpot, as European researchers announced that they’d found a trio of “super-Earths” that are only slightly larger than our own planet, and that the three are all orbiting the same star 42 light years away.

They said their findings, presented at a conference in France, suggest that Earth-like planets may be very common. “Does every single star harbour planets and, if yes, how many?” asked Michel Mayor of Switzerland’s Geneva Observatory. “We may not yet know the answer, but we are making huge progress towards it,” Mayor said in a statement [New Scientist].

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In a solar system far, far away, around a small and dim star, orbits a small planet, just three times the size of Earth.

The astronomers who discovered the small planet don’t know much else about it yet, but the basics are enough to get them excited. Extraterrestrial life is thought to have the best chance of surviving on planets with a similar mass to that of Earth, orbiting small stars.

This “exoplanet,” which goes by the romantic name MOA-2007-BLG-192Lb, is the second smallest planet ever spotted outside our solar system. The very smallest planet yet discovered is believed to be sterile, as it orbits a neutron star that emits blasts of radiation.

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