Surprising Find

NASA astronomers using the Spitzer Telescope have found a triple-ringed star, an asteroid belt and a gas giant like Jupiter in orbits similar to that of our own solar system. In fact, research suggests that the solar system might be a twin to our own.

In a strange case of life possibly imitating art the star is Epsilon Eridani, which was the Vulcan sun in the popular Star Trek series. Epsilon Eridani is only a fifth the age of our own sun at about 850 million years old. It is about 62 trillion miles away, and has the closest known solar system.

Being smaller, dimmer and younger than the sun, Epsilon Eridani's "habitable zone" for Earth-like planets would be closer to the star.