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An Earth-like planet recently spotted outside our solar system is the first that atromomers have found that could support liquid water and harbor life.

Liquid water is what astronomers look for, and the newly found planet is located at the perfect distance from its sun—just the right distance so that the water on its surface doesn’t freeze or vaporize.

The new planet is about 50% bigger than Earth and about five times more massive. It’s called Gliese 581 C, after its star, Gliese 581, a small red dwarf star that is about one-third as massive as the Sun.
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When our satellites search for other planets that might harbor life, they always search for water. But now, for the first time, astronomers have detected around a burgeoning solar system a sprawling cloud of water vapor that’s cold enough to form comets, which could eventually deliver oceans to dry planets. And with oceans, life could spring up–or maybe migrate to the planet from another place.
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One that is shooting water! A geyser of water is spurting up from the poles of a star that is 750 light-years from the earth at a rate of 124,000 mpg, creating "water bullets" that it shoots deep into space. If it has other planets around it, the inhabitants (if any) will have plenty to drink.

If this kind of star is common, there’s a possibility that stars like these distributing water throughout the universe. And since water is one of the things necessary for life as we know it, it implies that life is more common than we’ve thought.
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