PARIS - European astronomers announced Wednesday the discovery of what they say is the smallest known planet orbiting a star other than our sun.
The planet orbits a star called mu Arae some 50 light years away in the southern constellation of Altar.
The unnamed extrasolar planet appears to be the smallest yet discovered, said French astronomer Francois Bouchy in a statement by the European Southern Observatory.
Scientists say it has a mass of 14 times the Earth, or about the size of Uranus. It is bright enough to be seen with the naked eye.
Unlike Uranus, the planet appears to be rocky, with a gaseous atmosphere, making it a "possible super Earth-like object," the institute said.
More of the estimated 125 "extrasolar" planets have been about the size of Jupiter.
To find the planet, researchers used a sophisticated velocity-measuring instrument called the HARPS spectrograph. The instrument is found on ESO's 3.6-metre telescope at La Silla, Chile.
The research will be described in an upcoming issue of the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
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