NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) discovered in the constellation Eridan a system of exoplanets, which is very similar to the solar system. As reported on the NASA website, the system is located at a distance of 10.5 light years from Earth.

Epsilon Eridan's star, around which the planets rotate, resembles the young Sun. The system will allow scientists to establish how the planets develop that were formed around stars similar to our star.

Previously, researchers have already established that a disk of "garbage" rotates around the star, which indicates that the formation of planets around the star has already come to an end. Such "garbage" can take the form of gas and dust or small objects consisting of stone and ice. Debris and disks can form belts that are similar to the Kuiper belt in the Solar System.

Researchers, using computer modeling, determined possible regions for the location of belts from fragments in the detected system. According to one of them, the fragments form two separate rings that are located on the site of the main belt of asteroids and the orbit of Uranus in the Solar System. In this case, the largest of the planets of the system can be associated with the fragment belt. According to the second theory, the fragments do not concentrate in the belts and are not associated with any planet of the system.

Scientists have established that in the Epsilon Eridani system, the belts from the fragments are arranged in accordance with the first model.

Earlier it was reported that scientists discovered an exoplanet with a theoretical orbit that did not match the theoretical model. Rotating around a rather small star, it is deflected from the plane of rotation of the star by 76%. The planet has a mass close to the mass of Jupiter, but is located at a much closer distance to the star.