(ETH) – Astronomers at New Zealand’s University of Canterbury (UC) have discovered a particularly rare super-Earth. The report from C/NET states that “The newly discovered planet is among only a handful of extra-solar planets that have been detected with both sizes and orbits close to that of Earth,” according to UC in a release on Monday. 

The report stated that the “Extra-solar planet” is another term for exoplanet, which gives a description of a planet located outside of our solar system. As of now, We only have artists’ impressions of what these planets might look like, but they continue to fuel our curiosity as we seek out distant worlds that feel familiar.

The newly spotted exoplanet’s year lasts about 617 days and it travels around a much less massive star than the sun. It’s located near the Milky Way’s central bulge of stars. For scale, Earth is about 25,000 light-years away from the galactic center. READ MORE