Image copyright University of Birmingham Image caption Scientists at the University of Birmingham described the solar system as a "miniature version" of our own 
 
 An ancient solar system similar to our own has been discovered by scientists. 
 
 Studying data from the Kepler telescope, the team, led by the University of Birmingham, found a star orbited by five planets similar in size to Earth. 
 
 The system, 117 light-years away, is the oldest known of its kind, formed 11.2 billion years ago. 
 
 Dr Tiago Campante said it could provide a clue to "the existence of ancient life in the galaxy". 
 
 "By the time the Earth formed, the planets in this system were already older than our planet is today," he said. 
 
 "This discovery may now help to pinpoint the beginning of what we might call the era of planet formation." 
 
 The work is published in the Astrophysical Journal. 
 
 Researchers said the star, named Kepler-444, and its planets were two and a half times older than earth and dated back to the "dawn of the galaxy". 
 
 Image copyright NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T Pyle Image caption The Kepler telescope searches for dips in light as planets pass in front of stars 
 
 Planets ranging in size from Mercury to Venus orbit the star within the equivalent of 10 of our days. 
 
 While the proximity of the planets to the star ruled out the possibility of life, Dr Campante said the discovery showed planets of an Earth-like size, capable of supporting life, could exist around a similarly ancient star. 
 
 "There may be civilisations out there with a head-start of a few billion years. Imagine the level of technology," he said. 
 
 Nasa's Kepler mission has so far found hundreds of new worlds since it launched in 2009. 
 
 Scientists have studied the occasional dips in light as planets pass in front of their host stars. 
 
 Scientists studied the natural resonance of Kepler-444, caused by the sound trapped within it, allowing them to measure its diameter, mass and age. 
 
 Image copyright D.A.Aguilar/CFA Image caption The Kepler mission has found hundreds of new planets 
 
 Analysis 
 
 Dr David Gregory-Kumar, BBC Midlands Today 
 
 Planet-hunting is one of the most exciting areas of astronomy. What was once thought of as science fiction is now a reality. 
 
 But what makes today's discovery by the University of Birmingham so interesting is that the astronomers have found ancient planets that are similar to those in our own Solar System. 
 
 It means Earth-like planets have been around for much of the 13.8-billion-year history of the Universe. 
 
 This expands what we know about the early formation of planets and could even have implications for the potential for ancient alien life in our galaxy. 
 
 Meanwhile a new generation of planet-hunting telescopes, including one led by the University of Warwick, are just coming online. ||||| Astronomers have found a star system that bears striking resemblance to our inner solar system. It’s a sun-like star that plays host to a system of five small exoplanets — from the size of Mercury to the size of Venus. 
 
 But there’s something very alien about this compact ‘solar system’; it formed when the universe was only 20 percent the age it is now, making making it the most ancient star system playing host to terrestrial sized worlds discovered to date. 
 
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 An international collaboration of astronomers that studied NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope's observations over a period of four years, quickly realized that Kepler-444 formed around 11.2 billion years ago. 
 
 Though Kepler-444 may be likened to an ancient version of our solar system, the worlds it contains are not thought to be habitable and the planets that astronomers have identified certainly do not resemble Earth. They orbit well inside the star’s habitable zone at a distance only 10 percent the distance that the Earth orbits the sun. 
 
 “This system shows that planet formation could take place under very different conditions from the ones in which our solar system was formed and has implications for estimating the total number of planets in our galaxy, and other galaxies,” said co-investigator Sarbani Basu of Yale University. 
 
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 Kepler detected the family of 5 rocky worlds using the transit method — the exoplanets orbited in front of their host star, causing its light to dim slightly. The worlds’ physical sizes and orbital characteristics could therefore be determined. 
 
 But gauging the old age of the star (and therefore the age of the entire star system) required the researchers to use the method of asteroseismology to detect the star’s natural resonances caused by sound waves trapped within the stellar interior. The resonances cause slight variations in the star’s brightness that was then used to measure the star’s size, mass and age. 
 
 “There are far-reaching implications for this discovery,” said lead author Tiago Campante of the University of Birmingham, U.K. “We now know that Earth-sized planets have formed throughout most of the universe’s 13.8-billion-year history, which could provide scope for the existence of ancient life in the galaxy.” 
 
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 Indeed, discovering a system of rocky worlds that formed around such an ancient star suggests planetary formation occurred very early in the universe. We know that when the conditions are right, like on Earth, life began to pop up on our planet 3.6 billion years ago, approximately a billion years after our planet formed from the protoplanetary disk surrounding our young sun. 
 
 So that begs the question: if rocky planets formed 11.2 billion years ago around other stars, could there be a few that did have just the right conditions for life to be sparked? If so, could alien life have already come and gone in our galaxy’s history? Or could this ancient life be persisting for, potentially, 10 billion years after it first formed? 
 
 For now, we simply do not know, but studies such as these provide clues as to the possibilities of life’s niches throughout the Milky Way. 
 
 Source: Yale University
– Just how ancient is a newly discovered solar system? "By the time the Earth formed, the planets in this system were already older than our planet is today," University of Birmingham researcher Tiago Campante tells the BBC. The solar system—a star named Kepler-444 that's orbited by five planets—was uncovered via an analysis of data gathered by the Kepler telescope over a four-year period. The work was published yesterday in the Astrophysical Journal. Why the find is attracting so much attention: It's being described as a "replica" or "twin" solar system of our own. In terms of size, the planets fall between Mercury and Venus, making it the "oldest known system of terrestrial-sized planets," per the study. But likely not a life-sustaining one: The planets are too close to the star to permit life, with orbits about 10% of the distance Earth is from the sun. As far as age goes, the solar system came into being 11.2 billion years ago, a determination researchers made using asteroseismology (sound waves trapped within the star cause natural resonances that spur tiny changes in the star’s brightness; age is measured from these variations, reports YaleNews). And as far as distance goes, it's 117 light-years away. How the researchers frame the significance of the discovery: "We thus show that Earth-size planets have formed throughout most of the universe's 13.8 billion year history, leaving open the possibility for the existence of ancient life in the Galaxy." That leads Discovery News to ask, "Could alien life have already come and gone in our galaxy’s history?" (Another noteworthy find: the coldest spot in the universe.)