A newly discovered solar system contains scaled-down versions of Saturn and Jupiter

Finding means solar systems like ours may be common throughout the galaxy

Microlensing works by using the gravity of the near star (shown in the bottom left), and its orbiting planets as a lens, magnifying light from a background star. By studying... Click here for more information.

A team of international astronomers reports in the Feb. 15 issue of Science the discovery of a solar system nearly 5,000 light years away with scaled-down versions of Jupiter and Saturn. Their findings suggest our galaxy could conceivably contain many star systems similar to our own. The National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored the research.

"NSF is delighted to have played a role in enabling such an exciting discovery," said Michael Briley, a program manager in NSF's Division of Astronomical Sciences. "One of the outstanding questions has been whether or not planetary systems like ours are common, and it appears they may well be."

The new solar system appearsto be a smaller analog of our own. One of its planets is 70 percent of Jupiter's mass and another is 90 percent of Saturn's mass. The sun they orbit is about 50 percent the mass of the sun. Although the star is much dimmer than our sun, temperatures at both planets are likely to be similar to that of Jupiter and Saturn because they are closer to their star.