The current discovery, reported in today’s issue of the journal Nature in a paper signed by 73 researchers, took advantage of a relatively new technique called gravitational microlensing, based on Einstein’s precept that light from a distant star is bent by the gravitational pull of intervening stars, or other large bodies, on its way toward Earth.

The “lensing incident” distorts the incoming starlight, causing it to brighten for about a month. If the intervening star has an orbiting planet — even a small one — it will cause a supplemental “blip” in brightness. To analyze these planets, astronomers must observe the microlensing event continuously for as long as it lasts.

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