bThe discovery of six planets orbiting a bright star in perfect rhythmic harmony is a rare cosmic miracle, frozen in time, that may help explain how solar systems formed throughout the Milky Way galaxy.
The compact synchronous system released Wednesday is 100 light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices.
"This is about 25 times further away than the nearest star system to us," says Dr Greg Brown, senior public astronomy officer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich.
"If we wanted to travel to the nearest star system using current technology, it would take about 70 years. So we're looking 25 times further than that."
The discovery was made possible by a pair of planet-hunting satellites, including NASA's Tess.
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The extensive international research team describes the star system as a "rare fossil" that is essentially unchanged from its creation more than 4 billion years ago.
This star, designated HD 110067, may have even more planets.
The six found so far are roughly two to three times the size of Earth, but with densities closer to the gas giants in our solar system.
Their orbits range from nine to 54 days, placing them closer to their star than Venus is to the sun and making them extremely hot.
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Like gas planets, they are believed to have solid cores made of rock, metal or ice, wrapped by thick layers of hydrogen, according to scientists.
More observations are needed to determine what is in their atmosphere.
