'Super Saturn' with giant rings is first outside solar system

This drawing shows how the ring system would compare alongside Saturn (the tiny dot, top right)

Scientists have discovered an enormous ring system around a star, the first of its kind outside our solar system.

New research shows that the system around the star - called J1407 - consists of over 30 rings, each of them tens of millions of kilometres across.

"This planet is much larger than Jupiter or Saturn," said Eric Mamajek, who helped write the research.

"Its ring system is roughly 200 times larger than Saturn's rings. You could think of it as kind of a super Saturn."