Next-door neighbour: An artist’s impression of the recently found planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B, a member of the triple star system that is the closest to our own (click on the image to enlarge it) An Earth-sized planet has been found orbiting a star in Alpha Centauri, our nearest neighbouring solar system. The mystery world circling Alpha Centauri B is thought to be much too hot to support... 

European astronomers have claimed to discover at least 16 new so-called “Super-Earths” —planets similar to our own but many times denser— of which one is potentially habitable. The European Southern Observatory (ESO) said the exoplanets were seen through the High Accuracy Radical velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) telescope in Chile. “The harvest of discoveries from HARPS has exceeded...