A new report based on data from the Chile-based the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) telescope suggests that a nearby star known as HD 10180 may have as many as nine planets, the most of any known system.

HD 10180, 130 light years away, was previously believed to have six planets, but observations of the star's doppler shift suggest there may be three more.

The three new planets are "super-Earths," with masses of 1.3, 1.9 and 5.1 times that of Earth, but they don't have the proper conditions to support life. Two of the planets are closer to the star than Mercury is to the sun, making them hot enough to melt tin and zinc.

[badastronomy]