When searching for a new planet, Nasa finds best way is to Google it

GOOGLE has discovered lost tribes, missing ships and even a forgotten forest. But now the tech giant, working with Nasa, has made its biggest find of all: two entirely new planets.

Google used its algorithms to sift through thousands of signals sent back to Earth by Nasa’s Kepler space telescope.

One of the new planets was found in the Kepler-90 star system, which is about 2,200 light years away from Earth.

The discovery is important because it takes the number of planets in the star system up to eight, the same as our own Solar System. It is the first time that any system has been found to have as many planets as ours.

Andrew Vanderburg, astronomer and Nasa Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Texas, Austin, said: “The Kepler-90 star system is like a mini version of our solar system. You have small planets inside and big planets outside, but everything is scrunched in much closer.

“For the first time we know for sure the Solar System is not the sole record holder for the number of planets.

“Maybe there are systems out there with so many planets they make ours sound ordinary.”

The second new planet found by Google and Kepler has been named Kepler-80g.