Gravitational lensing, an effect predicted by the General Theory of Relativity which involves light from a distant oject being focused by being bent by the gravitational field of an object along the line of sight between the distant object and an observer, has been used to locate the most distant known planet.
It's about 1.5 times the mass of Jupiter and is orbiting a red drawf star, a small, cool star, some 17,000 light years away.
The technique will hopefully be able to reveal the existence of Earth-sized planets around other stars.
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