Scientists discovered a distant planet more than twice the size of Earth that could have the right conditions for life to exist, a new study says.

The exoplanet – so called because it exists outside our solar system – may have liquid water in habitable conditions beneath its atmosphere, astronomers said.

The planet is 124 light-years away in the constellation Leo and is about eight times as big as Earth. This "Super Earth" is the right distance from its star to conceivably harbor life.

The planet, called K2-18b, was discovered in 2015 and is one of hundreds of Super Earths – planets with a mass bigger than Earth but smaller than Neptune.

In September, two different research teams reported finding water vapor in K2-18b's hydrogen-rich atmosphere. The extent of the atmosphere and the conditions of the interior underneath remained unknown – until this study.

"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," said study lead author Nikku Madhusudhan of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

"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," he said.

Researchers said the planet could be an ocean world and have liquid water below the atmosphere at pressures and temperatures similar to those in Earth's oceans.

The study was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.