Using the Warsaw Telescope in Chile, astronomers have detected an enormous icy exoplanet resembling Uranus in a solar system 25,000 light years away.

Gigantic icy planets such as Neptune and Uranus consist mostly of hydrogen and helium, encompassed by a layer of methane ice that gives the planets their blue shade. While the newly discovered planet’s color has not been identified, it’s likely an ice giant due to its orbit- which is similar to Neptune’s and Uranus’s.

This new ice giant has been found in a binary star system, which has two suns. Its orbit has been determined by the pull and tug of two different stars, which explains its icy composition. It also helps scientists understand the mysteries behind Uranus and Neptune; while the two planets appear to have formed close to the Sun, they’re now on the outskirts of the solar system.

Neptune and Uranus are believed to be in their current orbits due to jostling by larger planets such as Jupiter and Saturn, which disrupted the ice planets’ original orbits. The newly discovered exoplanet has a similar orbit to Uranus’s, even though it’s roughly four times as dense.

The exoplanet was discovered using gravitational microlensing, a method where objects are magnified due to the bend of light around gravitational objects. The Warsaw Telescope in Chile is capable of microlensing, which can help detect distant objects as well as measure mass and composition.

The new exoplanet was discovered by a team from Ohio State University, led by researcher Radek Poleski. According to Poleski, “Only microlensing can detect these cold ice giants that, like Uranus and Neptune, are far away from their host stars. This discovery demonstrates that microlensing is capable of discovering planets in very wide orbits.”

“We were lucky to see the signal from the planet, its host star, and the companion star,” Poleski added. “If the orientation had been different, we would have seen only the planet, and we probably would have called it a free-floating planet.”