An international team of astronomers has discovered a miniature version of our own solar system nearly 5,000 light years away. (File Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    BEIJING, Jan. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- An international team of astronomers has discovered a miniature version of our own solar system nearly 5,000 light years away, according to a report published Friday in the journal Science.

    "We found a solar system that looks like a scaled-down analog of our solar system," Scott Gaudi of Ohio State University, who led the study, told reporters.

    In the newly discovered system, a planet about two-thirds of the mass of Jupiter and another about 90 percent of the mass of Saturn are orbiting a reddish star about half the mass of the sun, at about half the distances that Jupiter and Saturn circle the sun.

    "So it looks like a scale model of our solar system," Gaudi said.

    The discovery relied on 11 different ground-based telescopes in places including New Zealand, Tasmania, Israel, Chile, the Canary Islands and the United States, the report said.

    (Agencies)