One of the newly discovered solar system's planets has 70 percent of Jupiter's mass and another has 90 percent of Saturn's mass. The sun they orbit has about 50 percent the mass of the sun. Although the star is much dimmer than our sun, temperatures at both planets are likely to be similar to that of Jupiter and Saturn because they are closer to their star.

"The fascinating part is that if we 'scale' everything to the mass and brightness of the parent star, the masses of these planets relative to their star, and the amount of sunlight they receive, [the planets] are close to our own Jupiter and Saturn," said lead author Scott Gaudi, assistant professor of astronomy at Ohio State University. "So what we've found is a solar system analog, or a 'scaled solar system.'"

The two planets were revealed, reports the NSF, when the star they orbit crossed in front of a more distant star being observed from Earth. For a two-week period from late March through early April of 2006, the nearer star magnified the light shining from the farther star. The phenomenon is called gravitational microlensing, based on a concept first discussed by Albert Einstein in the early 20th century -- in this case, the light from the more distant star was magnified 500 times.

"This is the first case in which a Jupiter-mass planet was detected [where] we had significant sensitivity to additional planets," Gaudi said. "You could call it luck, but I think it might just mean that these systems are common throughout our galaxy."