Earth-like solar system found surrounding Vega

U.K. astronomers say they have found evidence that Vega, one of the brightest stars in the night sky, is surrounded by a planetary system that resembles Earth's solar system more than any other so far discovered.

Astronomers at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh, Scotland, used new computer models to show that a faint circle of dust surrounding Vega was produced by a Neptune-like planet orbiting the star. Vega, the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, is about 25 light-years, or 147 trillion miles, from the sun.

The planet is as far from Vega as Neptune is from the sun, and its wide orbit means there is enough space inside for rocky planets that are similar to Earth, astronomers at the observatory said in a statement.

The finding is "the Holy Grail for astronomers wanting to know whether we are alone in the universe," the observatory said.

About a hundred planets found orbiting other stars have been Jupiter-like gas giants relatively close to their own stars and so large they may have swept up debris that would endanger smaller planets with life-bearing potential.

The model suggests the Neptune-like planet formed closer to Vega and then moved to its current orbit during about 56 million years, pulling comets along with it and creating clumps in the ring of dust around the star.

Neptune may have been pushed to its orbit by a similar process, said Mark Wyatt, author of the study. The observations, described in today's issue of Astrophysical Journal, were made with a camera operated on the James Clerk Maxwell radio telescope atop Hawaii's 13,796-foot Mauna Kea mountain.