Dr Nuno Santos, of the University of Lisbon, speaking at the EuroScience Open Forum in Stockholm, Sweden, announced the discovery of what he described as the smallest Earth-like planet orbiting a star outside our Solar System. The discovery was made using the Harps spectrograph on the European Southern Observatory's at La Silla, Chile.

The planet is about 14 times the size of Earth – too small to be a gas giant - and is close enough to the star that it is unlikely to be icy. Mu Arae is located about 50 light-years from Earth, so NASA has not yet announced any plans for a mission.

__________________
Eudaimonia