A team of U.S. astronomers has announced recently that they have found another planet around the star known as 55 Cancri. This solar system is around 41 light years away from Earth and the new planet discovered is the fifth around the said star.

The planet, furthermore, is chiefly composed of gases and is about 45 times the mass of our Earth. But more than the discovery of the planet, astronomers are more intrigued about the planetary system being supported by 55 Cancri.

According to the astronomers, the five currently known planets are eerily similar to our very own solar system. For starters, 55 Cancri is almost as old as our Sun. This is not to mention that the newly found planet is almost the same to Jupiter.

Aside from that, astronomers believe that there are other smaller planets in between the newly found one and the last (the fourth planet). Professor Geoff Marcy of the University of California Berkeley who led the team had this to say:

There is an intriguing, mysterious gap between the fourth planet out around 55 Cancri and the Jupiter-like planet that's far away. In fact, it's a little hard to imagine that there's just nothing there in this big gap. So the suggestion is there might be small rocky planets, like Venus, Mars or Earth.