Astronomers have discovered an alien planet that could offer some of the most Earth-like conditions seen to date in the galaxy.

Located just 16 light years away from our planet, Gliese 832c is a super-Earth with a mass 5.4 times that of our own planet orbiting a red dwarf star every 36 days.

This orbit means that Gliese 832c is much closer to its host star than we are to ours, but because its red dwarf star has only half the mass of our Sun the planet receives around the same amount of stellar energy as we do.

Download the new Independent Premium app Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

Shape Created with Sketch. #RealGravity: Nasa's jaw-dropping space walk imagery Show all 11 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. #RealGravity: Nasa's jaw-dropping space walk imagery 1/11 Sun Over Earth The sun is seen over the Earth from the Russian section of the International Space Station on 22 November 2009. 2/11 Paul Richards during an EVA Paul Richards is seen during an Extravehicular Activity (EVA) on the International Space Station (ISS). 3/11 Reconfiguring the Station Sunita L. Williams is shown using a pistol grip tool to work on the ISS during a 7-hour, 55-minute spacewalk on 31 January, 2007. 4/11 Moving in Space Mike Fossum holds the Robotics Refueling Mission payload while his feet are secured on a restraint on the space station remote manipulator system's robotic arm. 5/11 Repairing the Station in Orbit Flight engineer Chris Cassidy is seen repairing a pump controller box on the ISS on 11 May, 2013. 6/11 Storm Clouds over the Atlantic This image shows storm clouds massing nearing Brazil and the Equator on 4 July, 2013. A Russian spacecraft is seen covering the small patch of sunlight reflected on the ocean waters through a break in the clouds. 7/11 Checking the toolkit Steve L. Smith is shown retrieving a power tool from the handrail of the remote manipulator system (RMS). Many of the tools required to service the Hubble space telescope are kept here. 8/11 Free Flying Mission Specialist Bruce McCandless II, is seen further away from the confines and safety of his ship than any previous astronaut has ever been. McCandless went free flying to a distance of 320 feet away from the Orbiter using the Manned Manuevering Unit or MMU, a nitrogen jet propelled backpack. 9/11 Southern Lights This panoramic view, looking past the docke space shuttle Atlantis, shows the Aurora Australis or Southern Lights. These displays are caused by charged particles from the magnetosphere and the Sun colliding with atoms in the thermosphere. 10/11 The Ultimate Photo Shoot Inside the Cupola of the ISS, Nasa astronaut Chris Cassidy uses a 400mm lens on a digital camera to photograph the Earth 250 miles below him. 11/11 Earth's Horizon The horizon of Earth is seen against the blackness of space in this image from 2003. 1/11 Sun Over Earth The sun is seen over the Earth from the Russian section of the International Space Station on 22 November 2009. 2/11 Paul Richards during an EVA Paul Richards is seen during an Extravehicular Activity (EVA) on the International Space Station (ISS). 3/11 Reconfiguring the Station Sunita L. Williams is shown using a pistol grip tool to work on the ISS during a 7-hour, 55-minute spacewalk on 31 January, 2007. 4/11 Moving in Space Mike Fossum holds the Robotics Refueling Mission payload while his feet are secured on a restraint on the space station remote manipulator system's robotic arm. 5/11 Repairing the Station in Orbit Flight engineer Chris Cassidy is seen repairing a pump controller box on the ISS on 11 May, 2013. 6/11 Storm Clouds over the Atlantic This image shows storm clouds massing nearing Brazil and the Equator on 4 July, 2013. A Russian spacecraft is seen covering the small patch of sunlight reflected on the ocean waters through a break in the clouds. 7/11 Checking the toolkit Steve L. Smith is shown retrieving a power tool from the handrail of the remote manipulator system (RMS). Many of the tools required to service the Hubble space telescope are kept here. 8/11 Free Flying Mission Specialist Bruce McCandless II, is seen further away from the confines and safety of his ship than any previous astronaut has ever been. McCandless went free flying to a distance of 320 feet away from the Orbiter using the Manned Manuevering Unit or MMU, a nitrogen jet propelled backpack. 9/11 Southern Lights This panoramic view, looking past the docke space shuttle Atlantis, shows the Aurora Australis or Southern Lights. These displays are caused by charged particles from the magnetosphere and the Sun colliding with atoms in the thermosphere. 10/11 The Ultimate Photo Shoot Inside the Cupola of the ISS, Nasa astronaut Chris Cassidy uses a 400mm lens on a digital camera to photograph the Earth 250 miles below him. 11/11 Earth's Horizon The horizon of Earth is seen against the blackness of space in this image from 2003.

This puts Gliese 832c in the habitable or ‘Goldilocks zone’ in its solar system – a sweet spot where it is neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist upon the planet’s surface.

“With an outer giant planet and an interior potentially rocky planet, this planetary system can be thought of as a miniature version of our Solar System,” said professor Chris Tinney of the University of New South Wales where the super-Earth was discovered.

“If the planet has a similar atmosphere to Earth it may be possible for life to survive, although seasonal shifts would be extreme,” he added.

Gliese 832c is one of the most Earth-like planets yet discovered as ranked by the Earth Similarity Index. This measure incorporates a number of factors including surface temperature and planet density to rank extrasolar planets in a scale from 0 to 1. Gliese 832c was ranked 0.81 on the Index while the most Earth-like planet yet confirmed (Gliese 581g) ranks at 0.89.

Unfortunately this doesn't mean it's a given that Gliese 832c is similar to Earth on the surface, as the large mass of the planet means that it probably has a thicker atmosphere than ours that has led to a runaway greenhouse effect and boiling temperatures.

However, for astronomers the most exciting aspect of Gliese 832c is its relative proximity – 16 light years away in a galaxy that is 100,000 light years wide. Writing on Space.com, Mike Wall said: “it's just a stone's throw from Earth in the cosmic scheme of things.”