BEIJING, June 15 -- U.S. astronomers have announced the discovery of the most Earth-like planet outside of the solar system. But temperatures on the surface would be too hot to support life on it. 

    The as yet unnamed "extra-solar" planet is orbiting a small star in the constellation Aquarius and is almost 7 1/2 times the size of the Earth. it may be the first rocky planet ever found orbiting a normal star not much different from our Sun.

    "This is the smallest extrasolar planet yet detected and the first of a new class of rocky terrestrial planets. It's like Earth's bigger cousin." said Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

    All of the other planets discovered outside the solar system have been about 15 times as massive as Earth or bigger. This discovery, orbiting the star Gliese 876 in the Aquarius constellation, is thought by scientists to be a rocky world similar to Earth.

    Gliese 876 is a small, red star known as an M dwarf. It is located in the constellation Aquarius, and, at about one-third the mass of the sun, is the smallest star around which planets have been discovered. The star is about 15 light-years from Earth; one light year being the distance that a beam of light travels in a year. It is roughly estimated to be about 6 trillion miles.

    Scientists have discovered two gas giants around that star before finding the smaller planet.

    (Agencies)