AKIPRESS.COM - Astronomers have discovered a planet around one of the closest stars to our Sun, BBC reports.

Nearby planets like this are likely to be prime targets in the search for signatures of life, using the next generation of telescopes.

The planet's mass is thought to be more than three times that of our own, placing it in a category of world known as "super-Earths".

It orbits Barnard's star, which sits "just" six light-years away.

The star is named after the American astronomer E E Barnard, who measured properties of its motion in 1916.