A newly discovered planet orbiting a star 42 light years is in the right spot to support life, but until more advanced telescopes can give researchers a clearer picture, we won't know for sure whether this “super-Earth” could really be habitable.

Scientists at the University of Hertfordshire in Britain published a study last week of the exoplanets orbiting the small star, HD 40307, and determined the sixth planet in the system, HD 40307g,  fell within the so-called “Goldilocks Zone.”

From Space.com:

"The longer orbit of the new planet means that its climate and atmosphere may be just right to support life," study co-author Hugh Jones, of the University of Hertfordshire in England, said in a statement. "Just as Goldilocks liked her porridge to be neither too hot nor too cold but just right, this planet or indeed any moons that it has lie in an orbit comparable to Earth, increasing the probability of it being habitable."

The planet is one of only two exoplanets discovered within its star’s habitable zone that is also believed to spin on its axis and thus have a day-night cycle that would be necessary for an Earth-like climate to develop.  Had HD 40307g orbited closer to its star, the tidal forces may have locked one face of the planet forever in the same position.

Much is still uncertain about the planet, however, as without a closer look from something like the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists can’t tell whether it resembles Earth’s rocky structure, or one similar to Neptune with a small, rocky core and thick atmosphere.

The super-Earth (the term used for planets bigger than Earth, but with less than ten times the mass) with about seven times the mass of Earth, could also lack the same core and mantle structures that gives our planet its radiation-shielding magnetic field.

To know any of this for sure, scientists will have to conduct direct observations of HD 40307g, some of which may require the use of telescopes not yet built.  And considering it would take a spacecraft like the Voyager probe 40,000 years to get to even the closest star, actually travelling there would be a scientific endeavor all its own.

You can reach Staff Reporter Shea Huffman here or follow him on Twitter.