Tau Ceti, twelve light years away, belongs to the same G-type yellow main-sequence class as our sun, which is relatively rare – only one in 25 stars has the same properties.

Its planets were detected not by direct observation, but by calculating the slight gravitational tug these as-yet-unseen planets exert on the orbit of their star. Previously, these star ‘wobbles’ could not be clearly separated due to a multitude of other factors, but scientists at several universities in the UK and the US, say they have cleared the 'noise' with sophisticated new techniques and have found five planets.

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