Chance of alien life given massive boost as scientists reveal water 'likely' on thousands of exoplanets

This artist's conception of a planetary lineup shows habitable-zone planets with similarities to Earth: from left, Kepler-22b, Kepler-69c, the just announced Kepler-452b, Kepler-62f and Kepler-186f. Last in line is Earth itself (NASA)

The quest for alien life has been boosted by a major discovery about exoplanets — planets that exist outside our solar system.

Scientists say that "water worlds," or exoplanets that contain lots of water, are actually very common.

A team of experts has been digging into data obtained by the Kepler space telescope, as revealed at Monday's Goldschmidt conference being held in Boston.

Kepler has discovered more than 4,000 exoplanets so far, some of which could support alien life.

And it turns out that around 35 percent of the planets that are bigger than Earth are "likely" to have water.

Even more excitingly, some are believed to have as much as 50 percent water — far more than Earth's 0.02 percent water-weight.

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