Are we really not alone? It is possible that a soon-to-expire star, which was as fiery and lively as own sun millions of years ago, could provide some solid answers to this age-old question.

Scientists believe there must be life some 100 light years away from Earth's solar system, a new report said. Or at least some verifiable traces of it.

Such conviction, according to The Verge, is anchored on the wealth of new information coming from a fading out sun system and extracted by researchers from the University of Cambridge.

In particular, researchers are intrigued by an asteroid, detected on the subject solar system, that seems to carry a good amount of water - some 24 per cent of its total mass, according to lead study author Jay Farihi. The clues they have gathered so far are convincing enough to suggest that there is life on that part of the vast universe.

Or there was.

Dr Farihi told The Verge that oxygen has been observed to be present on the same asteroid, which his team has concluded is more likely in a liquid state or water. He added that their investigation somehow established that the asteroid's water reservoir matches that of our own planet.

So that gigantic rock, remnants of planet creations some eons ago, could possibly host life forms or at least the planets that certainly dot the solar system where the same asteroid is whizzing around, Dr Farihi said.

The study, however, is clear on the fact that if there was life out there, it was in the past. The research notes that what the system holds as its sun, labelled as GD 61, is already labelled by astronomers as a white dwarf.

That would mean, the particular star is nearing its stage of becoming extinguished soon.

Regardless, Dr Farihi insists that "this star definitely has planets, it has asteroids." It follows then that life form or forms once move about within the fading out sphere. And it is possible too that creatures which live off on the presence of oxygen are still out there, trying to survive in an environment that seems to be deteriorating.

Dr Farihi conceded that at the moment all the questions they have will remain unanswered for a long time though he was comforted by the solid evidence that the same solar system his group has been studying "had all of the ingredients."

Of intelligent beings? The answer to that, the scientist said, is beyond him for now.

What matters really is "I think it's really awesome that we found the signs of planet pieces that can be building habitable environments and environments for life," Dr Farihi told The Verge.

The study of Dr Farihi and his group is published this week by the Science Journal.