humans have made two major discoveries in the search for other earth - like particles . belgian astronomers argue they have identified the smallest known earth - sized exoplanet around a known star like gliese 581 e and further discovered that a nearby planet called orbiting 581 d , located in 2007 , is in the much valued after ' habitable place ' . astronomers also believe there is a possibility that 581 d could have cloud oceans on its part , named the find " unexpected . " " the true matrimony of now exoplanet detection is the detection of a rocky , planet - like feature in the ' habitable zone ' , " said biologist at switzerland ' s free university , michel mayor . astronomers say 581 w is 20 . 5 space km away from earth and that it ' s thus 1 . 9 times shorter than earth , proving it the smallest pulsars discovered to date . it was found utilizing the high accuracy radial velocity planet gph03 ( cellos ) .
Michel Mayor is the discoverer of the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher.