The newly discovered planet is orbiting a giant red star that is 10 times larger than the sun. The planet circles the giant star every 360 days and is about 300 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Perseus.

The planet is the first discovered by Penn State astronomers using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, which is operated by the University of Texas at Austin at the McDonald Observatory near Fort Davis, Texas, for several universities, including Pennsylvania State University.

"After astronomers have spent more than 10 years searching for planets around sun-like stars and discovering over 250 planets elsewhere in our galactic neighborhood, we still do not know whether our solar system's properties -- including life-supporting conditions on our planet -- are typical or exceptional among solar systems throughout the galaxy," said Wolszczan.

The discovery is to be reported in a November issue of the Astrophysical Journal.