The planet, named 55 Cancri e, is 60 percent larger in diameter than Earth but eight times as massive. Twice as dense as Earth -- almost as dense as lead -- it is the densest solid planet known, according to a team led by astronomers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of British Columbia (UBC), the Harvard‑Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC).

The research, based on observations from Canada's MOST (Microvariability & Oscillations of STars) space telescope, has been submitted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. MOST is a Canadian Space Agency mission.