Two teams of scientists have discovered a theoretically habitable planet, smaller than Earth but larger than Venus, orbiting a small star about 40 light-years away.

The planet, named according to CNN, Gliese 12b, orbits around a red dwarf star located in the constellation Pisces and about 27% the size of our sun and 60% its temperature, according to two studies published Thursday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and Monthly, in Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Although the star is much smaller than the sun, Gliese 12b is still in the habitable zone, the ideal distance from a star where liquid water can exist, even though it completes its orbit every 12.8 days.

Working under the assumption that the exoplanet has no atmosphere, scientists calculated the temperature of its surface to be about 107 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Celsius).

“We found the closest transiting temperate Earth-sized world to date,” said Masayuki Kuzuhara, an assistant professor at the Center for Astrobiology in Tokyo and co-leader of one of the research teams with Akihiko Fukui, an assistant project professor at the University of Tokyo, in a statement.

Once temperate Earth-sized planets are identified, scientists can then analyze them to determine what elements are in their atmospheres and, crucially, if there is water to sustain life.

“There are only a few (exoplanets) that we’ve found that are good candidates for this. And this is our closest discovery, and therefore this is a very important discovery.” Larissa Palethorpe, a doctoral student at the University of Edinburgh and University College London who co-led the other study, told CNN.

On the road to understanding the new planet

To locate Gliese 12b, scientists used publicly available data collected by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) of NASAa telescope that looks at tens of thousands of stars each month, tracking changes in their brightness that may be evidence of orbiting exoplanets.

At the moment, scientists aren’t sure exactly what makes up this planet’s atmosphere, and whether water is present, although Palethorpe said they don’t expect to find water there.

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“There could be no water, and then we know that an invisible greenhouse effect has already occurred on this planet and is more like Venus,” he said. “There could be water, so it could be more like our own planet … or there could be signs that could show that the greenhouse effect is going on, so it could be losing water.”

For the next stage of analyzing the exoplanet’s atmosphere, scientists hope to use the James Webb Space Telescope and perform spectroscopic analysis. This method involves capturing starlight shining through an exoplanet’s atmosphere and finding which wavelengths are absorbed by certain molecules, revealing their presence in the atmosphere.

In addition to shedding light on the exoplanet itself, Palethorpe said scientists hope this work cana help us to better understand our own planet.

“What this particular planet will teach us is what happened for Earth to remain habitable but Venus not…”he said.

However, although the exoplanet could potentially be habitable for humans and is relatively “close” to our solar system in astronomical terms, it is unlikely that anyone will visit it anytime soon.

“Not reachable, 12 parsecs away”Palethorpe said, adding that it would take about 225,000 years to reach Gliese 12b with the fastest spacecraft currently available.