Paris: Three “super Earth” planets have been found orbiting a nearby star at a distance where life in theory could exist, according to a record-breaking tally announced yesterday by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The three are part of a cluster of as many as seven planets that circle Gliese 667C, one of three stars located a relatively close 22 light years from Earth in the constellation of Scorpio, it said.

The planets orbit Gliese 667C in the so-called Goldilocks Zone  a distance from the star at which the temperature is just right for water to exist in liquid form rather than being stripped away by stellar radiation or locked permanently in ice. “It is exciting that we have found a nearby star that has so many planets in its habitable zone,” said University of Washington astronomer Rory Barnes, part of an international team. The planets are called “super Earths” because they are relatively small compared to the giants that comprise most of the exoplanets, which lie beyond our Solar System, spotted since 1995.

It is the first time that so many “super Earths” have been netted in one scientific haul, and shows the value of seeking out low-mass, Sun-like stars that appear to generate these promising worlds, the astronomers said. Even if these planets are a potential home from home, it would be impossible to reach them with the slow chemical rockets available today, sources said.