This article originally appeared on cbsnews.com.
Astronomers think they’ve found a “super Earth” that might be capable of sustaining life. Kepler-62f is a planet 1,200 light-years away from our own, and in the same range of planets that are likely to not just be rocky, but also have oceans, the scientists say.
“We found there are multiple atmospheric compositions that allow it to be warm enough to have surface liquid water,” Aomaway Shields, study lead author and a National Science Foundation astronomy and astrophysics postdoctoral fellow at UCLA, said in a press release.
Shields worked alongside Eric Agol, Rory Barnes, Cecilia Bitz, Benjamin Charnay, and Victoria Meadows from the University of Washington. The team’s research was first published online in the journal Astrobiology.
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