This artist's conception shows the second planet to be found using gravitational microlensing. It weighs about three times as much as Jupiter and orbits a sun-like star located approximately 15,000 light-years from the Earth. Credit: David A. Aguilar (CfA)
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Astronomers discovered a new planet when it and its host star crossed in front of a very faint background star (marked by crosshairs) and magnified the distant star's light in a process called gravitational microlensing. Although the newfound planet is 3 times the size of Jupiter, microlensing offers the possibility of detecting earth-sized worlds using existing technologies. Credit: Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment
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