Researchers from the University of New South Wales detected an Earth-like planet 16 light years away. Scientists believe it could be capable of supporting life.

The Earth-like planet was officially named GJ 832 c. and was found to be orbiting a red-dwarf star every 16 days. It is said to be five times larger than Earth.

Dr. Robert Wittenmyer, lead author of the study and lecturer at the School of Physics at UNSW, explained that the newly-discovered planet showed an atmosphere very similar to that of Earth's.

"However, given the large mass of the planet, it seems likely that it would possess a massive atmosphere, which may well render the planet inhospitable. A denser atmosphere would trap heat and could make it more like a super-Venus and too hot for life," said Chris Tinney, co-author of the study. Tinney is an astronomer at the UNSW focusing on extrasolar planet and brown dwarf research.

The planet was first discovered by the team when its gravitational pull caused a slight alteration on the red-dwarf star's orbit. Experts from the Anglo-Australian Planet Search used the Anglo-Australian Telescope to conduct their own observations on the Earth-like planet.

The scientists added their observations to the data gathered by the 6.6m Magellan Telescope and 3.6m European Southern Observatory.

The newly-discovered planet is the third most likely place to support life. According to the Earth Similarity Index (ESI), the most similar planet to Earth was the Gliese 667C c, seen 23 light years away from our home planet. The Gliese 667C c scored a 0.84 rating out of the perfect score of 1.0. Following Gliese 667C c was the Kepler-62 e which had a score of 0.83 and was 16 light years away from Earth. GJ 832 c, on the other hand, scored 0.81.

Findings of the study were published in the July 1 issue of the Astrophysical Journal.