A planet twice the size of Earth discovered 110 light years away has water and temperatures that could support life.
Humans will not be capable of travelling to distant K2-18b any time soon but it could be home to alien life forms, according to a study.
Author Dr Angelos Tsiaras, of University College London, said: “Finding water in a potentially-habitable world other than Earth is incredibly exciting.”
The planet which is eight times heavier than Earth, was discovered by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft in 2015.
Sophisticated tools developed at UCL have now been able to translate data from the Hubble Space Telescope to identify molecule signatures of water vapour. Scientists believe the water content could be as low as 0.01% or as high as 50%.
Researchers also detected hydrogen and helium, which produce energy, but it is not currently possible to identify any life forms on the planet.
More “super Earths” are expected to be among 4,000 “exoplanets” recently found.
Dr Tsiaras added: “The search for habitable planets, it’s very exciting, but it’s here to always remind us this is our only home and it’s probably out of the question if we will be able to travel to other planets.”
