Astronomers recently discovered three rocky planets that are also referred to as "super-Earths," each presenting a mass between two and ten times bigger than the Earth’s.

The announcement was made during a meeting in Nantes, France where the officials from the University of Geneva Observatory in Switzerland released a list with a total of 45 new planets. The presentation explained that all the planets orbit their stars in less than 50 days at a very close distance.

The discovery was presented by the University’s team leader, Michel Mayor and according to scientists’ estimates, the planets orbit much too close to their stars to support life, with the temperatures exceeding the one on Mercury which is of about 354 degrees.

Mr. Mayor discovered a planet outside our solar system for the first time back in 1995 and since then, close to 300 others have been spotted, photographed and periodically inspected. Most of them appear to be giant gas planets, similar in size with Saturn or Jupiter or even bigger, but the recent searches managed to find several planets similar to Earth.

"Probably the true abundance of these planets is even larger," says Notre Dame Astronomer David Bennett, according to USAToday. Mr. Bennett who also attended Mayor's presentation in Nantes, is responsible for a similar discovery earlier this month, the only difference is that the planet he found is too cold to support life.

The new-found trio is estimated at a distance of 43 light years away. Just to make an idea of the huge distance between us and the "super-Earths," keep in mind that one light year is equal to almost ten trillion kilometers.