Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics researchers have adapted a laser technology to discern the faint gravitational influence that Earth-like planet revolving around a Sun-like star exert on their home stars’ light output, based on the induced wobble.

Their system increases the precision of spectrographs–optics used to analyze light from distant stars.

To date, astronomers have discovered nearly 300 planets, called exoplanets, outside our own solar system.