ASTRONOMERS have discovered an Earth-like planet with a hazy atmosphere that could support water.

It is the first time an atmosphere has been detected around an Earth-like planet, other than the Earth itself.

The discovery has been hailed as an important step towards detecting life outside our Solar System.

The ‘Super Earth’, named GJ 1132b, is 39 light years away and 1.4 times the size of our own planet.

Keele University’s Dr John Southworth led the team that made the discovery.

“While this is not the detection of life on another planet, it’s an important step in the right direction,” he said.

The discovery comes after Australian scientists said they had detected that one of the universe’s most mysterious and brightest signals is extraterrestrial in origin.

How we find 'Super Earth' How we find 'Super Earth'

“The detection of an atmosphere around the super-Earth GJ 1132b marks the first time that an atmosphere has been detected around an Earth-like planet other than Earth itself,” Dr Southworth continued.

“With this research, we have taken the first tentative step into studying the atmospheres of smaller, Earth-like, planets.”

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“We simulated a range of possible atmospheres for this planet, finding that those rich in water and/or methane would explain the observations of GJ 1132b.

“The planet is significantly hotter and a bit larger than Earth, so one possibility is that it is a ‘water world’ with an atmosphere of hot steam.”

The discovery was made using the GROND imager telescope of the European Southern Observatory in Chile.

As we continue to search deeper into the universe, Dr Southworth said we are likely to find more signs of life.

“The discovery of this atmosphere is encouraging.” he said.

“The properties of GJ 1132b show that an atmosphere can endure this for billion of years without being destroyed.

“Given the huge number of very low-mass stars and planets, this could mean that the conditions suitable for life are common in the Universe.”

The current method used by scientists for detecting signs of life on other planets is by analysing the chemical composition of the atmosphere of that planet. That means looking out for chemical imbalances which could be caused by living organisms.

For Earth, an indicator of life is the presence of large amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere.

Before the discovery of GJ 1132b’s Earth-like atmosphere, the only detections of exoplanet atmospheres involved gas giants similar to the high temperatures on Jupiter, which are unlikely to support life.

GJ 1132b will be studied further by the Hubble Space Telescope and ESO’s Very Large Telescope, as well as the James Webb Space Telescope which is slated for launch in 2018.