The world 's first robotic planet finder is hoped to help in the search for Earth-like planets that might support life in other solar systems . Now scientists have proven its capabilities by using the telescope to find a unique a planetary system orbiting a nearby star 54 light-years away . All three planets in the system orbit the star , HD 7924 , at a distance closer than Mercury orbits the sun , completing their orbits in just 5 , 15 and 24 days . The Automated Planet Finder ( APF ) consists of a 2.4-metre automated telescope and enclosure , and a high-resolution spectrograph . The spectrograph takes starlight from the telescope and spreads it into a rainbow of colours , splitting the light into a spectrum of thousands of different wavelengths that can be measured . The Automated Planet Finder ( APF ) consists of a 2.4-metre automated telescope and enclosure , and a high-resolution spectrograph . The spectrograph takes starlight from the telescope and spreads it into a rainbow of colours , splitting the light into a spectrum of thousands of different wavelengths that can be measured with great precision . Repeated measurement of a star 's spectrum enables astronomers to detect the tiny wobble induced in a star by the gravitational tug of an orbiting planet . The telescope and spectrograph operate robotically every night and target a preprogrammed list of nearby stars . APF observes them every night for months , in search of rocky planets with very low masses , similar to Earth . The ultimate goal of extrasolar planet research is to find planets like Earth that may support life . 'The three planets are unlike anything in our solar system , with masses 7-8 times the mass of Earth and orbits that take them very close to their host star , ' explains UC Berkeley graduate student Lauren Weiss . While the planets are likely to be too hot to support life , their discovery reveals the powerful capabilities of the Automated Planet Finder ( APF ) in California . 'This level of automation is a game-changer in astronomy , ' said Andrew Howard , an astronomers UC Berkeley . 'It 's a bit like owning a driverless car that goes planet shopping . ' AFP found the star system by tracing out the planets ' orbits over many years using the Doppler technique to see shifts in the star 's light . The planet system was also spotted by the Keck Observatory and the Automatic Photometric Telescope ( APT ) at Fairborn Observatory in Arizona . But unlike other telescope , the new APF facility offers a way to speed up the planet search as it robotically searches for planets every clear night . Training computers to run the observatory all night , without human oversight , took years of effort by the University of California Observatories staff team . 'We initially used APF like a regular telescope , staying up all night searching star to star , ' said University of Hawaii graduate student BJ Fulton . 'But the idea of letting a computer take the graveyard shift was more appealing after months of little sleep . ' The Kepler Space Telescope has discovered thousands of extrasolar planets and demonstrated that they are common in our Milky Way galaxy . Scientists have proven the APF 's capabilities by using the telescope to find a unique a planetary system orbiting a nearby star 54 light-years away . All three planets in the system orbit the star , HD 7924 , at a distance closer than Mercury orbits the sun , completing their orbits in just 5 , 15 and 24 days . AFP found the star system by tracing out the planets ' orbits over many years using the Doppler technique to see shifts in the star 's light . The planet system was also spotted by the Keck Observatory and the Automatic Photometric Telescope ( APT ) at Fairborn Observatory in Arizona . However , nearly all of these planets are far from our solar system . Most nearby stars have not been searched for the small 'super-Earth ' planets that Kepler found in great abundance . This discovery shows the type of planetary system that astronomers expect to find around many nearby stars in the coming years . 'Starspots , like sunspots on the sun , can momentarily mimic the signatures of small planets . 'Repeated observations over many years allowed us to separate the starspot signals from the signatures of these new planets , ' explains Evan Sinukoff , a UH graduate student who contributed to the discovery . The robotic observations of HD 7924 are the start of a systematic survey for super-Earth planets orbiting nearby stars . Fulton will lead this two-year search with the APF as part of his research for his doctoral dissertation . 'When the survey is complete we will have a census of small planets orbiting sun-like stars within approximately 100 light-years of Earth , ' says Fulton . Pictured is the Keck Observatory in Hawaii and on the right , which also helped find the planets . The robotic observations of HD 7924 are the start of a systematic survey for super-Earth planets orbiting nearby stars .
Automated Planet Finder in California found planets around HD 7924 . Planets orbit the star at a distance closer than Mercury orbits the sun . Scientists say automating the search for alien life could be beneficial . 'It 's like owning a driverless car that goes planet shopping ' they said .