The talks of mars and some other planets, known to have favorable living conditions has been doing rounds for years. And yet, another planet has been found which is the only one known to orbit a star outside our solar system which can have water and temperatures habitable for human beings.

The team used details like mass, radius and atmospheric data to conclude that amounts of liquid water is most likely be available under the hydrogen rich atmosphere.

Leading the new research, Dr Nikku Madhusudhan from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy said in a statement, “Water vapor has been detected in the atmospheres of a number of exoplanets but, even if the planet is in the habitable zone, that doesn’t necessarily mean there are habitable conditions on the surface. To establish the prospects for habitability, it is important to obtain a unified understanding of the interior and atmospheric conditions on the planet — in particular, whether liquid water can exist beneath the atmosphere.”

The orbit was subjected to intense media coverage when 2 different teams reported to have found water vapor in the atmosphere’s surface.

Matthew Nixon, a PHD student at the University of Cambridge included, “We wanted to know the thickness of the hydrogen envelope — how deep the hydrogen goes. While this is a question with multiple solutions, we’ve shown that you don’t need much hydrogen to explain all the observations together.”

The team designed simulations from the data provided by the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) in Chile, to determine the nature of the planet.

2.6 times the radius and 8.6 times the mass of Earth, the planet most likely would resemble either a rocky world with an atmosphere or a water world, covered with a thick layer of ice.

They were also able to determine the composition and structure of the atmosphere as well as the interior using statistical basis and numerical methods to explain the data.

The whole idea doesn’t say that the exoplanet hosts life or aliens, or probably habitable. However, the researchers are now working to know how deep the hydrogen goes.

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