Astronomers say we may not be alone

A team of astronomers claim they have found a planet similar to earth orbiting a star similar to the sun.

Researchers say they have found their best evidence yet that planets which could harbour life are circling other stars in distant space.

An international team of astronomers has discovered a huge distorted disc of cold dust surrounding one of the brightest stars in the sky, Fomalhaut, indicating that a planet is orbiting it.

"If that is the case then why shouldn't there be planetary systems like our own that contain Earth-like planets?" said Dr Wayne Holland, who led the study from the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh.

"We were amazed to find that the disk is actually bent about the star. This strongly suggests there is an orbiting giant planet shaping the dust we see," Dr Holland said.

But there is little chance of life on the new planet - it lies in the constellation of Piscis Austrinus and is coming under constant bombardment from a surrounding belt of comets.

The system is still evolving. The 200 million-year-old star Fomalhaut is a mere infant compared to our own 4.5 billion-year-old Sun.

To spot the new planet, the biggest telescope on Earth - the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii - was used in conjunction with cutting-edge camera technology at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh.

Astronomers decided to target the planet because excess heat emissions were found to be coming from it in a study 20 years ago.

Dr Holland went on: "It is a very important piece of the jigsaw because it does indicate that solar systems similar in size to our own do exist around other stars. This is one of the first pieces of observational evidence that this is the case."