Scientists have just made an absolutely staggering new discovery about alien planets and their atmospheres, and they were able to do some in a lab right here on Earth. It is a major finding that could go a long way in helping us understand planets outside of our solar system, and lead to breakthroughs in not just how understand of planet formation but also give us clues in the search for extraterrestrial life.

In the lab, researchers were able to determine that kind of “hazes” that surround Saturn’s moon Titan may be on exoplanets that we often refer to as a super Earth or a mini Neptune. These chemical hazes can tell us what the surface temperature is on these planets, as well as how able they would be to support alien life.

The study, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, shows where these particles form and what they are made out of. The findings could also help us learn more about our solar system, and about planets across the entire universe itself.

“One of the reasons why we’re starting to do this work is to understand if having a haze layer on these planets would make them more or less habitable,” said the paper’s lead author, Sarah Horst, assistant professor of Earth and planetary sciences at the Johns Hopkins University.