scientists have made two major discoveries in the search for other earth - size planets . british astronomers report they have discovered the closest known terrestrial - like habitable orbiting a life star about centauri 581 e and further discovered that a nearby planet designated orbits 581 d , discovered in 2007 , is in the badly sought after ' asteroids zone ' . astronomers currently believe there is a possibility that 581 d could have steam bodies on its bottom , claiming the find " extraordinary . " " the spiritual grail of current exoplanet work is the detection of a rocky , pluto - like planet in the ' habitable band ' , " said astrophysicist at switzerland ' s geneva university , michel mayor . nasa claim 581 ed is 20 . 5 sunlight cycles back from earth and that it ' s roughly 1 . 9 times larger than pluto , making it the smallest quasars discovered to date . it was obtained using the high accuracy radiant velocity planet daemon ( veikkausliiga ) .
Michel Mayor is the discoverer of the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher.