Astronomers at an observatory in Chile have discovered 32 planets outside our Solar System, bringing the number of known planets to more than 400.

The mass discovery was made by the European Southern Observatory's La Silla facility, which used the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS). The searcher detects the existence of orbiting planets from the way their gravity makes their stars deviate in their movements across the sky.

The discovery is important because it suggests that there are large numbers of planets in our galaxy. With the existing technology astronauts have so far only been able to detect planets whose sizes are many times the mass of the planet Earth.

However with the introduction of new technologies scientists believe they will soon be able to identify planets capable of supporting life. The members of the HARPS team believe they will identify the existence of another batch of planets within the next six months.

La Silla Observatory in Chile
Photo by Wikimedia Commons