A scientific collaboration led by the University of Birmingham and contributed to by the University of Sydney discovered by using observations made by NASA's Kepler satellite, a Sun-like star with orbiting planets, dating back to the dawn of the Galaxy.

The star, named Kepler-444, hosts five planets smaller than Earth, with sizes varying between those of Mercury and Venus. The important fact is that, at 11.2 billion years old, it is the oldest star with Earth-sized planets ever found and proves that such planets have formed throughout the history of the Universe.