First ‘Super Earth’ Planet Found

A new kind of planet has been discovered in a star system 50 light years away. It is the smallest world to be found outside our Solar System, and probably the first rocky planet found so far. The planet orbits the star mu Arae, which has been monitored by a European team of astronomers using an instrument called HARPS (High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher), attached to the 3.6-metre telescope at La Silla Observatory in Chile