Astronoomers have found the second smallest exoplanet yet, a world only four times as massive as Earth. It orbits its parent star every four days, so it's not a good candidate for harboring life, but it confirms our growing ability to find smaller worlds.
Indeed, astronomers can increasingly support the assumption that Earth sized worlds exist. Most of the 400 or thereabouts exoplanets so far discovered are still "hot Jupiters"-- huge worlds close to their suns. New technology, however, has allowed the discovery of several worlds in the Super Earth category in fairly short order, which makes astronomers confident they will find sibling Earths in fair abundance when technology allows.
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