One More Step To New Worlds

From today's New York Times:

Astronomers say they have found a miniature version of our own solar system 5,000 light years across the galaxy — the first planetary system that really looks like our own, with outer giant planets and room for smaller inner planets. The discovery, they said, means that our solar system might be more typical of planetary systems across the universe than had been thought.

Sara Seager, a theorist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was not part of the team, said, “Right now in exoplanets we are on an inexorable path to finding other Earths.” She praised the new discovery as “a big step in finding out if our planetary system is alone.”