Some 2500 light years from Earth there is a dwarf star with the unassuming name KIC 11442793.
Around this unassuming star lies a system of 7 planets - the most dense planetary system around a star aside from our own solar system detected as of yet. The planets orbit the star in a much tighter orbit than our own planets orbit good old Sol.
The discussion on Planet Hunters forums was responsible for one of the identifications. NASA's Kepler Space Telescope's observations are observed and sorted by Planet Hunters because the sheer amount of incoming data is far too much for scientists to follow on their own. Kepler uses the Transit system for determining the position and location of new planets. This involved looking at the dip in light from the parent star as a planet passes in front of it.
Although it may resemble the system we call home, it's vastly different because of the tighter orbits. There's a lot of things that our system has that KIC 11442793 doesn't. The thing is, As much as it's similar to our system it's not home and 2200 light years is a helluva long way away. Here's to us developing FTL travel so we may actually get to experience these alien worlds firsthand...
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