NASA has said that a solar system with the same number of planets as our own has been discovered for the first time.

The space agency’s Kepler spacecraft spotted the family of eight exo-planets - meaning planets outside our solar system - orbit the Kepler-90 star, which looks similar to our sun but is 2,545 light years from Earth.

Scientists say the discovery of a system with a similar configuration to our own has increased the chances that life arose on other planets.

However, the Kepler-90 planets themselves have been deemed unlikely to harbour alien organisms as they orbit their sun much closely than those around earth do.

The discovery was made thanks to a computer designed by Google which analysed data already gathered by Kepler. It uncovered a new planet - Kepler 90i - to go with the seven already spotted.

“The Kepler-90 star system is like a mini version of our solar system,” said NASA’s Andrew Vanderburg, an astronomer at the University of Texas.

“You have small planets inside and big planets outside, but everything is scrunched in much closer.”