discovered an Earth-like planet that has the potential to harbour extraterrestrial life.

In an astonishing find, astronomers have discovered an Earth-like planet that has the potential to harbour extraterrestrial life. The remarkable discovery was made by the NASA’s Kepler telescope during K2 mission back in 2015. Researchers from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), the University of Tokyo, and the Astrobiology Center, collectively scanned the data obtained

by the Kepler telescope and discovered Earth-like exoplanet named K2-3d.  Planet K2-3d is nearly 1.5 times the size of Earth and takes 45 days to complete one revolution of its star which is located nearly 150 light-years away from Earth.

Researchers believe that the exoplanet has the necessary ingredients to foster alien life as the planet is located in the goldilocks zone. Goldilocks zone is a range of distance between planet and star where water exists in the liquid state. It is to be noticed that if a planet is too close to star then water exists in vapour form and if it is too far then water turns into ice.

We all know that liquid water is one of the basic requirement for the life and scientists believe that K2-3d might be holding water in liquid state. To confirm it, scientists can check the atmospheric composition of the planet when it makes the transit. During transit, the planet passes in front of the star which causes the change in light and by studying this change, researchers can determine the atmospheric composition of any planet.

Study authors revealed that they will use advanced telescopes like thirty-meter telescope to check the atmosphere of K2-3d. If liquid water is found then researchers can look for alien life on the planet.