Astronomers have discovered the basic ingredients of Earth-like exoplanets that orbit distant stars.

Lead author Courtney Dressing from the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics said our solar system isn't really as unique as we first thought. She says rocky exoplanets basically have the same ingredients as does the Earth.

Like Us on Facebook

This discovery was made possible by the HARPS-North instrument found on the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo in the Canary Islands near Morocco. HARPS is specifically designed to measure small Earth sized worlds and can determine densities and compositional makeup of exoplanets.

David Charbonneau, who leads the HARPS-North Science Team, said the team's strategy is to focus more on planets that measure less than two times Earth's diameter. The team, therefore, targeted Kepler-93b, which 1.5 times the size of the Earth and takes 4.7 days to orbit its sun.

HARPS-North found out that the mass of the planet is 4.02 times Earth, making it a very rocky planet. The team compared all 10 small exoplanets with a diameter of less than 2.7 times of Earth's. Five exoplanets with diameters1.6 times smaller than the Earth's also showed a link between their mass and size.

Researchers also said Venus and Earth fall into the same category since both planets have similar iron and rock compositions. Massive worlds present the opposite, however, as their densities are significantly lower.

This could mean they have bodies of water and might consist of hydrogen and helium. Larger exoplanets apparently have more diverse compositions than smaller ones.

Dressing says in order to search for an Earth-like world in other star systems, the planet should be less than 1.6 times the size of Earth and should have a rocky composition.

Tagsrecipe for earth like planets, super earth, kepler 93b, Exoplanets, how to find earth like planets, Astronomers Reveal Recipe How to Make an Earth-like Planet