Don't go booking a ticket to K2-18b just yet.
The newly discovered exoplanet, described as being the closest thing to a new Earth found so far, is unlikely to welcome refugees from our wrecked homeworld.
"If you're standing on the planet, you'll probably be crushed," University of Auckland astrobiologist Kathy Campbell told The AM Show on Thursday.
At twice the width and eight times the mass of Earth, the gravity on K2-18b would make us all weigh twice as much - and our bodies are just not equipped to deal with that.
There's also a good chance it doesn't have a surface to stand on.
"With all this hoopla about a planet with water in its atmosphere, let me make this clear: It's a gas giant," Bad Astronomy blogger Phil Plait wrote on Twitter.
"It's far more like Neptune than Earth."
The atmosphere is what's got scientists at University College London excited though. The team's measurements show it may be up to 50 percent water, and the planet itself might be rocky like Earth.
"Water is abundant in the universe, but not necessarily in the form that we can use," said Dr Campbell.
"But if it's liquid water, we're in the Goldilocks zone - not too hot, not too cold. This is why all the telescopes are being pointed at this thing right now."
While K2-18b has generated "hoopla", Dr Campbell said it only ranks as a "moderate" news-level event - far better is soon to come.
"Very, very soon we're going to have new telescopes in space, they have new ways of looking and scanning the sky."
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K2-18b's water was detected with data collected by the Hubble Space Telescope, which launched almost 30 years ago. Its replacement, the James Webb Telescope, is scheduled to launch in March 2021.
With its improved technology and better location - 2500 times further from the Earth than Hubble - James Webb will surpass Hubble's ability to collect data by "a factor of 10 to 100,000 depending on the type of observations being carried out" according to the Canadian Space Agency, which contributed to its construction.
"We're going to be awash in exoplanets," said Dr Campbell.
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And it's only a matter of time she believes before we find ET.
"Some other either civilisation or kind of life had to evolve. It's very odd that it would just be us. We haven't seen anything else, but we're not alone."
Until then, we have to make do with the planet we already have - K2-18b is just too far away. A light-year is 9.46 trillion kilometres - 4.5 billion times the distance from Cape Reinga to Bluff, via State Highway 1 - and K2-18b is 110 light-years away.
"I think a better prospect is Mars," said Dr Campbell. "It's a little closer, a little easier to get to."
Newshub.
