New analysis of telescope data shows a dwarf star just 40 light years from Earth has at least seven apparently rocky planets with potential to harbour water, an international team of scientists announced yesterday.

"Looking for life elsewhere, this system is probably our best bet as of today," said Brice-Olivier Demory, professor at the University of Bern's Centre for Space and Habitability and one of the authors of a paper on the planets around TRAPPIST-1, a small, ultracool star.

The discovery of the planets, which are all about the size of Earth or smaller, was announced at the Nasa headquarters in Washington and published in the journal Nature.

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