Earth, where life exists and flourishes, is the only known planet that has great life-supporting conditions. The reason behind this is its proper distance from the Sun. The planet is able to get maximum benefit from just the right amount of heat energy emitted by the Sun.

At the same time, its distance from the Sun is perfect to keep the temperature low; it maintains the temperature required for survival of living creatures. A news report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology informed that a new study suggests that planets approximately the size of Earth also follow such circular orbital paths.

Researchers from MIT and Denmark’s Aarhus University have worked on the research project. The study has been published in the Astrophysical Journal. The study looked at 74 exoplanets, located hundreds of light-years away. It was found by them that each exoplanet orbited its solar system’s center in a circular pattern, similar to the ones in Earth’s solar system.

According to Vincent Van Eylen, a visiting graduate student in MIT's Department of Physics, only Earth’s solar system was known 20 years ago and as everything was circular, so circular orbits were thought to exist everywhere. According to Eylen, "We started finding giant exoplanets, and we found suddenly a whole range of eccentricities, so there was an open question about whether this would also hold for smaller planets. We find that for small planets, circular is probably the norm".

The exoplanets that were examined were about the size of planet Earth. These smaller planets were inclined to be at constant distance from the sun all the way through their orbits.