Jan 04, 2016 11:24 AM EST By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

A team of astronomers came up with a new way to measure a distant star's gravity with a method that is expected to advance the search for alien life.

According to BBC News, measuring a star's gravitational pull will help astronomers more accurately determine if a planet orbiting it can host life as we know it on Earth. Published in the journal Science Advances, the new study explained how a star's gravity can help researchers determine the possibility of surface water.

"The timescale technique is a simple but powerful tool that can be applied to the data from these searches to help understand the nature of stars like our Sun and to help find other planets like our Earth," study lead author Thomas Kallinger, of the University of Vienna, said in a press release.

Researchers generally determine if a distant planet has a surface temperature favorable to water and microbial life by measuring the distance at which it orbits its star, which is known as the habitable zone.

"If you don't know the star, you don't know the planet," study co-author Jaymie Matthews, a professor at the University of British Columbia, said in the release. "The size of an exoplanet is measured relative to the size of its parent star. If you find a planet around a star that you think is Sun-like but is actually a giant, you may have fooled yourself into thinking you've found a habitable Earth-sized world. Our technique can tell you how big and bright is the star, and if a planet around it is the right size and temperature to have water oceans, and maybe life."

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