scientists have reported six major efforts in the search for other planet - scale planets . british astronomers say they have discovery the smallest documented earth - like exoplanet visiting a living planet called gliese 581 h and also discovered that a nearby body called habitable 581 d , discovered in 2007 , is in the highly sought after ' habitable zone ' . observers also argue there is a possibility that 581 d could have liquid oceans on its surface , calling the finding " extraordinary . " " the holy grail of now exoplanet activity is the appearance of a rocky , ground - like planet in the ' inhabited zone ' , " wrote astrophysicist at spain ' s zurich university , antoine mayor . astronomers says 581 e is 20 . 5 space years out from earth and that it ' s roughly 1 . 9 tenth larger than venus , declaring it the deepest exoplanet discovered to know . it was found using the high accuracy radial speed asteroid webmaster ( harps ) .
Michel Mayor is the discoverer of the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher.