New Zealand scientists have helped discover an Earth-sized planet in an Earth-like orbit more than 3000 light years away.
Astronomers from Auckland, Massey and Canterbury universities along with amateur astronomers were part of an international team that discovered the planet.
Photo: UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND
It is the first such planet found in a system that is home to two stars.
Though twice the mass of Earth, it doesn't support life, as it has temperatures of minus two hundred degrees.
But a physics lecturer at Auckland University, Nicholas Rattenbury, said the discovery shows there could be many more planets in the galaxy capable of supporting life.
Scientists used a technique known as microlensing to detect the planet.
Microlensing discovers planets by measuring how the gravity of a planet and its host star deflects light coming from background stars.