LONDON, Sept 17: Astronomers scanning southern skies in search of distant solar systems have discovered a Jupiter-like planet 100 light years away circling a star similar to our own sun.

The planet — the 100th to be found outside our solar system — was found by a team of astronomers using the Anglo-Australian Telescope in New South Wales.

“Now our searches have become precise enough to find many planets in orbits like those in our solar system, we are seeing clues which may help us understand how planets are formed,” British team leader Hugh Jones told Reuters.

Jones said it was another step forward in the search for planetary systems similar to earth’s which might eventually reveal whether mankind is indeed alone in the universe.

The new planet has a mass similar to that of Jupiter and circles its star Tau1 Gruis in the Grus or Crane constellation once every four years. The new planet is three times as far away from its star as the earth is from the Sun.—Reuters