A new laser system should make it possible to detect potentially habitable Earth-like planets for the first time by watching for their effects on the light produced by the stars they orbit.

Researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have adapted a relatively young laser technology to discern the once undetectably faint gravitational influence a rocky, Earth-like planet revolving around a Sun-like star exerts on their home stars' light output.

If the Harvard technique holds up in use on actual telescopes, it could be "a huge breakthrough" in the search for Earth-like planets, which will help scientists "understand how our own Earth came to be" and search for life beyond our planet, says Sara Seager, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at MIT in an interview with the MIT Technology Review.

To date, astronomers have discovered nearly 300 exoplanets, outside our own solar system.