Its 9am in singapore and 1am in london and 8pm in the evening in washington, where nasa has announced the discovery of seven planets, all of which have the potential to hold life. The cluster of new worlds orbit a smaller star less than a0 light years away. Now, more research is planned to discover whether conditions on the planets are likely to support living organisms. Our science editor, David Shukman has the details. An artists impression of a startling discovery deep in space, around a faint and distant star, much weaker than our sun, is a collection of planets that are surprisingly similar to earth. In all, seven of these worlds have been spotted, and astronomers think it may change the way we look at the night sky. The discovery gives us a hint that finding a second earth is notjust a matter of if, but when. An array of telescopes kept watch on one point in space and what the scientists were looking for were tiny clues about the light of a particular star becoming dimmer, on a r