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Article here: http://www.quantumday.com/2014/01/pla... Using ESO's High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS), astronomers have discovered an exoplanet that is remarkable in two aspects; it is orbiting a rare solar twin and that it is found in an open star cluster. The planet, found in star cluster Messier 67, is orbiting a star that has features almost identical to the Earth's Sun; a solar twin. This is the first solar twin in a star cluster to have a planet orbiting it. The planet is more massive than Jupiter and takes 122 days to orbit the star. In this ESOcast we look at how astronomers have used ESO's HARPS planet hunter in Chile, along with other telescopes around the world, to discover three planets orbiting stars in the cluster Messier 67. Although more than one thousand planets outside the Solar System are now confirmed, only a handful have been found in star clusters. Remarkably one of these new exoplanets is orbiting a star that is a rare solar twin — a star that is almost identical to the Sun in all respects. Credit: ESO. Visual design and editing: Martin Kornmesser and Luis Calçada. Editing: Herbert Zodet. Web and technical support: Mathias André and Raquel Yumi Shida. Written by: Phillip Keane and Richard Hook. Music: Toomas Erm. Footage and photos: ESO, Luis Calçada, Digitized Sky Survey 2, Martin Kornmesser, ESA/Hubble, Alexandre Santerne and Nick Risinger (http://www.skysurvey.org/). Directed by: Herbert Zodet. Executive producer: Lars Lindberg Christensen. Usage of ESO Images and Videos: http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/co...