It turns out Kepler-62f, a super-Earth exoplanet 370 parsecs away thought to have surface water when it was discovered in 2013, might really be a water-dominated solid planet with life.

Kepler-62f heads to the top of the list of exoplanets that might have life - most probably microorganisms - in its oceans. Apart from Kepler-62f, Kepler-186f and Kepler-442b are the best candidates for potentially habitable planets.

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What makes Kepler-62f a more likely candidate for life however primitive are its physical characteristics.

It's located inside the habitable or Goldilocks zone of its star, Kepler-62. It's also a massive planet 40 percent larger than the Earth and that, said scientists, is a good indication Kepler-62f is a solid planet and not a gas giant. A previous study showed that a great majority of planets in its size range are completely covered by oceans.

Kepler-62f is the outermost of five planets orbiting a star smaller and cooler than our Sun. It might also have a moon.

"We found there are multiple atmospheric compositions that allow it to be warm enough to have surface liquid water," said Aomawa Shields, lead author of the study published online in the journal Astrobiology.

"This makes it a strong candidate for a habitable planet."

Shields also noted that at its size, Kepler-62f is within the range of planets likely to be rocky and could possibly have oceans. The study was conducted by scientists at the University of California-Los Angeles and the University of Washington.

To find-out if Kepler-62f could sustain life, the team drew-up scenarios about what its atmosphere might be like and what the shape of its orbit might be.

It found there are multiple atmospheric compositions that allow Kepler-62f to be warm enough to have surface liquid water. It also conducted computer simulations and found many scenarios that allow the planet to be habitable, assuming different amounts of carbon dioxide in its atmosphere.

Shields said that for the planet to be consistently habitable throughout its entire year, it would require an atmosphere three to five times thicker than Earth's and composed entirely of carbon dioxide.

Having such a high concentration of carbon dioxide would be possible for the planet because CO2 could build up in the planet's atmosphere as temperatures get colder to keep the planet warm.

Shields collaborated with astronomers Rory Barnes, Eric Agol, Benjamin Charnay, Cecilia Bitz and Victoria Meadows, all of the University of Washington.

TagsKepler-62f, Kepler-62, Aomawa Shields