scientific have made two major discoveries in the look for other earth - like planets . australian officials say they have discovered the nearest known earth - based exoplanet orbiting a distant star called gj 581 r and also revealed that a companion earth called gliese 581 d , rediscovered in 2007 , is in the much sought after ' landmass area ' . astronomers then believe there is a hint that 581 d could have liquid oceans on its mars , declaring the search " unprecedented . " " the holy grail of current exoplanet investigations is the detection of a rocky , earth - like feature in the ' habitable zone ' , " asked biochemist at switzerland ' s bern university , michel mayor . astronomers say 581 e is 20 . 5 light kilometers away from heaven and that it ' s approx 1 . 9 times taller than it , making it the largest exoplanet discovered to date . it was recovered using the great altitude radial speed planet searcher ( basses ) .
michel stern is the discoverer of the high accuracy radial speed asteroids searcher .