A team of international astronomers may have found a solar system just like ours, lending hope to researchers looking to find rocky Earth-like exoplanets in the habitable zone.
Using data collected by the European Southern Observatory's 3.6-meter telescope, researchers recently located a Jupiter-like gas planet orbiting a sun nearly identical to our own.
Not only is the faraway gas giant similar in mass, size and composition to Jupiter, it's also orbiting its host star at distance similar to the separation between Jupiter and our sun. The star around which the Jupiter lookalike orbits is called HIP 11915, and it is equally resemblant of our sun -- featuring a similar mass, age and composition.
While researchers have yet to identify other exoplanets, the newly located solar system is likely to reveal new planetary discoveries as researchers probe further.