Juuust right - another planet found in the "Goldilocks zone"

As expected, the exoplanets discoveries continue, but with this latest announcement remarkable for being a planet in the so-called Goldilocks zone - where the temperature and other conditions would be suitable for water in the liquid state. And water means a possibility of life - as we know it anyway.

This planet is nice and close too - only 22 light years away, around a star in the constellation Scorpio labelled GJ 667C. There are several other planets identified around this star too, meaning that this planet has been designated GJ 667Cc...

It's a pretty big planet at about 4.5 times the size of ours, and it is very close in to its sun, with a 'year' of just 28.15 days.

But wouldn't that cook it, you ask? Well yes except that this star is a small red dwarf (hence the picture!), and is much cooler than ours, with its light emissions mostly in the infra-red part of the light spectrum.

And those other planets? There's another 'super-Earth' but it is so close in that it has a 'year' of just 7.2 days! Scorcher... And there may be a gas giant a bit further out with an orbit of 75 days, but this hasn't been confirmed yet.

Unlike the discoveries from the Kepler space telescope, which uses dips in a star's light to discern a planetary eclipse, GJ 667Cc was detected using the 'wobble' method. This detects slight movements of the star back and forth as it is pulled towards the orbiting planets. Lots of complicated maths ensues. Which is why if you want to get on the exoplanet discovery bandwagon, you've got to study up on maths!

The guy who did his maths homework and ended up finding GJ 667Cc was Guillem Anglada-Escudé. And the rival team called HARPS that originally gathered this data must be seriously cheesed off that they missed this!

UPDATE: And here's another Tatooine-like discovery - two planets around a double-star system. Kepler 34 (289 day orbit) and 35 (131 days), together with a previously announced Kepler 16, around two stars about 5000 light years away in the Cygnus constellation. Far enough out from the stars that it wouldn't mess up your sleep pattern too much having all those sun up/down interludes...