(CNN) While scouring our corner of the galaxy for planets similar to Earth, some scientists have gotten pretty picky. Along with being able to support life, they believe the ideal habitable exoplanet should reside in a solar system that mirrors ours.

But our solar system appears to be unlikely to be easily found elsewhere. Now, astronomers may have done it, according to a new study on the search for "solar system 2.0."

Our potential match lies about 200 light-years from Earth near a star called HIP 11915 that is very much like our sun. The star can be seen using binoculars near the constellation Cetus in North America's southern night skies.

Picky, picky, picky

So, what picky set of variables makes this new solar system a special match to our own?

There is strong evidence that it has a planet that mimics our Jupiter, a gaseous giant with a similarly huge mass. Astronomers believe the Jupiter twin also orbits HIP 11915 about the same distance as Jupiter does our sun.

It takes 3,600 days for the twin to circle HIP 11915, similar to Jupiter's orbital phase around the sun, which takes about 4,330 days

It's no wonder it's hard to find such an exact match. There are a few close calls out there, said Richard Hook, a spokesman for the European Southern Observatory, but this discovery is unique.

"This is the most precise match," he said. "This is the best Jupiter-like object around a sun-like object."

A Brazilian-led team of astronomers working at the University of Sao Paulo used powerful technology -- the observatory's 3.6-meter telescope, which houses a device noted for finding exoplanets by analyzing light coming from stars they orbit.

The Milky Way Galaxy stretches over the European Southern Observatory's 3.6-meter telescope in La Silla, Chile.

Jupiter, gravity bully

Why does the Jupiter twin matter?

Having a Jupiter in the right place is important. In our solar system, the giant gas planet apparently has played a big role in creating and preserving stability on Earth.

Its gravitational might is second in strength only to that of our sun, and Jupiter exerts it in the right places, helping to keep flying objects such as asteroids in line and not swarming around in broad swaths. They would be very dangerous for a planet hosting life.

Paleontologists say that one single hefty asteroid strike was enough to wipe dinosaurs off the face of the Earth millions of years ago. The "gravitational bully," as astronomers like to call Jupiter, bends the paths of objects flying near it, and it reels some big ones right into it.

Photos: All about asteroids Photos: All about asteroids Asteroid 2014 JO25 was imaged by radar from NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California one day before its closest approach to Earth. A grid composed of 30 images shows the two-lobed asteroid in different rotations. The space rock passed Earth on April 19, 2017, at a distance of 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers). Hide Caption 1 of 21 Photos: All about asteroids A graphic shows asteroid 2014 JO25 as it is projected to fly safely past Earth on April 19, 2017, at a distance of about 1.1 million miles or about 4.6 times the distance from Earth to the moon. Hide Caption 2 of 21 Photos: All about asteroids This graphic illustrates asteroid 2016 HO3 orbiting Earth as the pair go around the sun together. The asteroid was first spotted on April 27, 2016, by the Pan-STARRS 1 asteroid survey telescope on Haleakala, Hawaii. Hide Caption 3 of 21 Photos: All about asteroids All about asteroids – This graphic shows the track for asteroid 2004 BL86, which flew about 745,000 miles from Earth on January 26, 2015. That's about three times as far away as the moon. Hide Caption 4 of 21 Photos: All about asteroids This graphic shows the path Asteroid 2014 RC took as it passed Earth on September 7, 2015. The space rock came within one-tenth the distance from Earth to the moon. Hide Caption 5 of 21 Photos: All about asteroids NASA scientists used Earth-based radar to produce these sharp views of the asteroid designated "2014 HQ124" on June 8, 2014. NASA called the images "most detailed radar images of a near-Earth asteroid ever obtained." Hide Caption 6 of 21 Photos: All about asteroids The Hubble Space Telescope snapped a series of images on September 10, 2013, revealing a never-before-seen sight: An asteroid that appeared to have six comet-like tails Hide Caption 7 of 21 Photos: All about asteroids A diagram shows the orbit of an asteroid named 2013 TV135 (in blue), which made headlines in September 2013 when it passed close by Earth. The probability of it striking Earth one day stands at 1 in 63,000, and even those odds are fading fast as scientists find out more about the asteroid. It will most likely swing past our planet again in 2032, according to NASA. Hide Caption 8 of 21 Photos: All about asteroids Asteroid 2012 DA14 made a record-close pass -- 17,100 miles -- by Earth on February 15, 2013. Most asteroids are made of rocks, but some are metal. They orbit mostly between Jupiter and Mars in the main asteroid belt. Scientists estimate there are tens of thousands of asteroids and when they get close to our planet, they are called near-Earth objects. Hide Caption 9 of 21 Photos: All about asteroids Another asteroid, Apophis, got a lot of attention from space scientists and the media when initial calculations indicated a small chance it could hit Earth in 2029 or 2036. NASA scientists have since ruled out an impact, but on April 13, 2029, Apophis, which is about the size of 3½ football fields, will make a close visit -- flying about 19,400 miles (31,300 kilometers) above Earth's surface. The images above were taken by the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory in January 2013. Hide Caption 10 of 21 Photos: All about asteroids If you really want to know about asteroids, you need to see one up close. NASA did just that. A spacecraft called NEAR-Shoemaker, named in honor of planetary scientist Gene Shoemaker, was the first probe to touch down on an asteroid, landing on the asteroid Eros on February 12, 2001. This image was taken on February 14, 2000, just after the probe began orbiting Eros. Hide Caption 11 of 21 Photos: All about asteroids The first asteroid to be identified, 1 Ceres, was discovered January 1, 1801, by Giuseppe Piazzi in Palermo, Sicily. But is Ceres just another asteroid? Observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope show that Ceres has a lot in common with planets like Earth. It's almost round and it may have a lot of pure water ice beneath its surface. Ceres is about 606 by 565 miles (975 by 909 kilometers) in size and scientists say it may be more accurate to call it a mini-planet. NASA's Dawn spacecraft is on its way to Ceres to investigate. The spacecraft is 35 million miles (57 million kilometers) from Ceres and 179 million miles (288 million kilometers) from Earth. The photo on the left was taken by Keck Observatory, Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The image on the right was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Hide Caption 12 of 21 Photos: All about asteroids One big space rock got upgraded recently. This image of Vesta was taken by the Dawn spacecraft, which is on its way to Ceres. In 2012, scientists said data from the spacecraft show Vesta is more like a planet than an asteroid and so Vesta is now considered a protoplanet. Hide Caption 13 of 21 Photos: All about asteroids The three-mile long (4.8-kilometer) asteroid Toutatis flew about 4.3 million miles (6.9 million kilometers) from Earth on December 12, 2012. NASA scientists used radar images to make a short movie Hide Caption 14 of 21 Photos: All about asteroids Asteroids have hit Earth many times. It's hard to get an exact count because erosion has wiped away much of the evidence. The mile-wide Meteor Crater in Arizona, seen above, was created by a small asteroid that hit about 50,000 years ago, NASA says. Other famous impact craters on Earth include Manicouagan in Quebec, Canada; Sudbury in Ontario, Canada; Ries Crater in Germany, and Chicxulub on the Yucatan coast in Mexico. Hide Caption 15 of 21 Photos: All about asteroids NASA scientists say the impact of an asteroid or comet several hundred million years ago created the Aorounga crater in the Sahara Desert of northern Chad. The crater has a diameter of about 10.5 miles (17 kilometers). This image was taken by the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. Hide Caption 16 of 21 Photos: All about asteroids In 1908 in Tunguska, Siberia, scientists theorize an asteroid flattened about 750 square miles (1,200 square kilometers) of forest in and around the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. Hide Caption 17 of 21 Photos: All about asteroids What else is up there? Is anyone watching? NASA's Near-Earth Object Program is trying to track down all asteroids and comets that could threaten Earth. NASA says 9,672 near-Earth objects have been discovered as of February 5, 2013. Of these, 1,374 have been classified as Potentially Hazardous Asteroids, or objects that could one day threaten Earth. Hide Caption 18 of 21 Photos: All about asteroids One of the top asteroid-tracking scientists is Don Yeomans at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed by the California Institute of Technology. Yeomans says every day, "Earth is pummeled by more than 100 tons of material that spewed off asteroids and comets." Fortunately, most of the asteroid trash is tiny and it burns up when it hits the atmosphere, creating meteors, or shooting stars. Yeomans says it's very rare for big chunks of space litter to hit Earth's surface. Those chunks are called meteorites. Hide Caption 19 of 21 Photos: All about asteroids Asteroids and comets are popular fodder for Earth-ending science fiction movies. Two of the biggest blockbusters came out in 1998: "Deep Impact" and "Armageddon." (Walt Disney Studios) Others include "Meteorites!" (1998), "Doomsday Rock" (1997), "Asteroid" (1997), "Meteor" (1979), and "A Fire in the Sky" (1978). Can you name others? Hide Caption 20 of 21 Photos: All about asteroids Asteroid 1998 QE2 is about 3.75 million miles from Earth. The white dot is the moon, or satellite, orbiting the asteroid. Hide Caption 21 of 21

Solar system hopes

Scientists have been finding exoplanets for more than two decades. In the beginning, they thought they'd quickly see them housed in complex solar systems like our own, but they were mistaken, Hook said.

Instead, they found sun-like stars with a planet or two orbiting them, or multiple larger planets huddled in close orbits around their stars.

The discovery of the Jupiter twin around HIP 11915 has ignited an old hope.

"This discovery is, in every respect, an exciting sign that other solar systems may be out there waiting to be discovered," said Megan Bedell of the University of Chicago, lead author of the study.

Here comes the sun

For an exoplanet to support life, having a star similar to our sun nearby is a good thing. Such stars are plentiful -- an easy find, astronomers say.

Scientists look for exoplanets in their orbits. Those are pretty easy to find, too. The Kepler space telescope alone turned up about 4,000 potential candidates.

Finding an exoplanet that could harbor liquid water and be in a "habitable zone" -- just the right distance from a sun-like star so as not to overheat or freeze over -- is much tougher. But it has been done a few times.

Finding a perfect Jupiter that potentially helped form a solar system similar to ours is exceptionally hard, Hook said.

Signs of an Earth?

What the scientists haven't been able to see is an Earth-like exoplanet orbiting HIP 11915. To spot one, its orbit would have to pass in front of its sun-like star at the right angle relative to Earth to create a silhouette that astronomers here could detect.

The orbits around HIP 11915 appear to be tilted in a different plane. But it is possible that more exoplanets, rocky ones like Earth, could exist in that sweet spot between the sun-like star and that Jupiter twin.

"There are indications that there probably are, but there is no direct evidence," Hook said.

Analyzing the light from HIP 11915, the astronomers have found chemical signatures that hint at their existence.