A team of European planet hunters has uncovered a bonanza of 32 new exoplanets, planets outside our solar system. Using a precise spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope in northern Chile, the astronomers spotted enough planets to bring the total number of known exoplanets up by nearly 10 percent—to 403. Most of these hundreds of exoplanets are gas giants, but in the mix there are also super-Earths, planets with masses that are up to 20 times that of Earth. These are especially difficult to find because they are so much smaller than the giant Jupiter-like gaseous planets. 

Scientists usually spot exoplanets by detecting changes in the motion of the star the planets are orbiting. But because the gravity of an orbiting super-Earth tugs so weakly on its star, the changes are harder to observe. The spectrograph that made this discovery possible was the first instrument able to detect the tiny changes from these planets. These 32 exoplanets have also supported the idea that super-Earths are much more common than they were once thought to be. Scientists now think that super-Earths may be found near more than 60 percent of stars similar to our sun. At that rate, Stephane Udry, an astronomer at the University of Geneva in Switzerland who announced the discovery, believes it is very likely that life exists on other planets. The elements that make up rocky planets can only be made in stars, and some of these elements are also the elements needed for life. "There are many planets," he says, "and I am convinced we will find life."