A team of international astronomers has discovered a planet with a "very similar mass to Jupiter" that is orbiting a star similar to the Sun, called HIP 11915. Researchers made the discovery by making use of a superpowerful telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, which related to the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

In addition, the newly discovered planet is about the same distance from its star as Jupiter is from Earth's. Also HIP 11915 is also approximately the same age as the Sun.

The team led by Jorge Melendez, an academic at the University of Sao Paulo, made the discovery. According to Melendez, the discovery has been made by using the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher, or HARPS, which is a telescope at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in northern Chile.

According to Melendez, "More observation is needed to confirm ... the discovery but according to the ESO, the star, HIP 11915, is one of the most promising candidates so far to host a planetary system similar to our own". ESO said the most recent theories say that our Solar System's arrangement that is so favorable to life was a contribution by the presence of Jupiter and its gravitational impact on our Solar System in the period of its formation.

It is rare to find a Jupiter-like planet at such a distance from its central sun. A team of astronomers had hypothesized in a theory released this year that the planet Jupiter was an important factor in the formation of solar system.