Fifty new exoplanets discovered

Astronomers using a telescope in Chile have discovered 50 previously unknown exoplanets.

The bumper haul of new worlds includes 16 super-Earths — planets with a greater mass than our own, but below those of gas giants such as Jupiter.

One of these super-Earths orbits inside the habitable zone — the region around a star where conditions could be hospitable to life.

The planets were identified using the Harps instrument in La Silla in Chile