Going by the most recent astronomy-related findings reported in the journal Nature on Thursday, astronomers claim to have discovered a new planet - dubbed GJ 1214b - which is composed mostly of water.

The newfound "water world" is nearly 2.7 times larger and 6.5 times more massive than the Earth, reportedly orbits a star that is merely 40 light-years away. Astronomers say that the seemingly Earth-like planet is so close to the Earth that its atmosphere can be "sniffed"!

On the basis of the density of GJ 1214b, scientists have presumed that it comprises nearly three-quarters liquid water, quite akin to the Earth, as well as a solid core of iron and nickel and an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium.

While the discovery of GJ 1214b has sent across a wave of encouragement across the astronomers that they might just be getting closer to the much-awaited breakthrough finding of a 'livable' planet, the newly-discovered planet cannot be inhabited because of its excessive heat - almost 400 degrees Fahrenheit on the ocean surface - and an enclosure of a dark fog of superheated steam and other gases.

Noting that the GJ 1214b is "basically one big ocean," the lead author of the report, David Charbonneau, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said that the planet is "probably is not habitable, but it didn't miss the habitable zone by that much."