Today, at an international conference, a team of European astronomers announced a remarkable breakthrough in the field of extra-solar planets.
Using the HARPS instrument at the ESO La Silla Observatory, they have found a triple system of super-Earths around the star HD 40307.
Moreover, looking at their entire sample studied with HARPS, the astronomers count a total of 45 candidate planets with a mass below 30 Earth masses and an orbital period shorter than 50 days. This implies that one solar-like star out of three harbours such planets.

Read more in ESO 19/08 at
http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/press-r...8/pr-19-08.html