A Chilean doctorate student has discovered by coincidence a new planet orbiting a star double the size of the Sun, some 320 million light years from Earth.

Twenty-five year-old Maritza Soto Vasquez came upon the sphere while studying a nearby red star.

Apparently it has a mass 100 times that of Earth.

It is also said to be closer to its star than the Earth is to the Sun and can be compared to a planet three times the size of Jupiter, in the place of Venus.

Vasquez who studies at the University of Chile said she was delighted to have her findings confirmed and that she had “always dreamed of making a concrete scientific discovery”.