A team of international astronomers reports in the Feb. 15 issue of Science, working under the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation (NSF), has found a miniature version of our own solar system 5,000 light years across the galaxy. The research was published in the Feb. 15 issue of Science.

The discovery was made possible by the gravitational lensing effect, which was predicted by Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. It means that gravity acts as a lens which magnifies light sources which would be otherwise too dim to notice.

"The fascinating part is that if we 'scale' everything to the mass and brightness of the parent star, the masses of these planets relative to their star, and the amount of sunlight they receive, [the planets] are close to our own Jupiter and Saturn," said lead author Scott Gaudi, assistant professor of astronomy at Ohio State University, in a statement issued by the National Science Foundation.

"So what we've found is a solar system analog, or a 'scaled solar system.'"

The two planets similar to Jupiter and Saturn were noticed when the star they orbit crossed in front of a more distant star as seen from Earth. The event occurred over a two-week period from late March through early April of 2006. Due to gravitational lensing, the nearer star magnified about 500 times the light shining from the farther star.

The international collaboration was essential to the team's success. "Without our observations, which were carried out when it was daylight where the other observatories are located, it would have been impossible to conclude that the Saturn-like planet existed," said Prof. Dan Maoz, a member of the Israeli team at Tel Aviv University's Wise Observatory at Mitzpe Ramon, as quoted by The Jerusalem Post.

Image credit: KASI - CBNU - ARCSEC