EXPERTS have spotted a potentially habitable new planet that might be “remarkably similar to Earth”.
But there is one chilly catch – scientists believe temperatures may below -70C.
HD 137010 b, as it’s been named, is thought to be a rocky planet slightly larger than Earth.
And it too orbits around a Sun-like star, for about 355 days.
However its star is cooler and dimmer, which explains why the planet is so bitterly cold.
This means conditions on HD 137010 b are more akin to Mars, where temperatures run at about -65C.
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The amount of heat and light the planet gets from its star is less than a third of what Earth receives from the sun.
Astronomers made the surprise discovery after combing through data captured in 2017 by Nasa‘s Kepler space telescope.
But for now it remains only a “candidate planet” as it needs more observations to confirm it is indeed a planet.
Researchers say it could also turn out to be a temperate or even a watery world.
For the moment, there’s a 50-50 chance it sits within what experts define as the habitable zone, a distance from a sun-like star at which liquid water could exist – and therefore the possibility of life.
The next best planet with a sun-like star in a habitable zone is four times farther away.
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“If HD 137010 b has an atmosphere like that of Earth or Mars, it is likely to be colder than Antarctica,” explained Dr Alexander Venner, from the University of Southern Queensland.
“But a thicker atmosphere could warm the planet enough to allow liquid water, which might be a good environment for life.
HD 137010 b is about 146 light-years away which is relatively close in the grand scheme of our galaxy.
However, with current technology it would take us “tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years” to get there, said Dr Sara Webb, an astrophysicist at Swinburne University, who was not part of the research.
The findings were published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.
