Planet K2-18b – which is more than twice as big as Earth and 120 light-years away – sits within the habitable zone of its star in the Leo constellation.
Now, to confirm the finding, the James Webb Space Telescope will undertake hours of observations of the planet on Friday.
However, space fans will have to wait several months for the results to be authenticated and published.
Investigations of planet K2-18b are being led by Dr Nikku Madhusudhan, an astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge.
He's called it a 'hycean' world – a relatively new term he coined for a rocky planet with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere and oceans of water.
'If we do detect DMS [on K2-18b] it does put it basically at the top for potential signs of habitability,' he told the Times .
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