Astronomers estimate the mean temperature of the newly discovered planet to be between 0 degrees and 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
"Water would be liquid," notes lead researcher Stephane Udry with Switzerland's Geneva Observatory. "Models predict that the planet should be either rocky — like our Earth — or covered with oceans."
The discovery likely will bolster efforts to find other Earth-like planets circling so-called red dwarf stars, which are the most common type of stars in our galaxy. Of the 100 closest stars to the sun, 80 are red dwarfs.
"Red dwarfs are ideal targets for the search for such planets because they emit less light, and the habitable zone is thus much closer to them than it is around the sun," Bonfils said.
Planets closer to their mother stars are typically easier to find than those farther away.
The scientists, part of an international team from Switzerland, France and Portugal, submitted their findings for publication in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
The discovery was made using with the Chile-based European Southern Observatory High Accuracy Radial Velocity for Planetary Searcher instrument.
