The search for life beyond Earth just got more exciting: researchers have detected a new planet, Kepler-725c, nestled in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. Using the Transit Timing Variation (TTV) technique – a clever twist on traditional methods – scientists inferred this hidden world's presence by tracking the orbital wobble of its gas giant neighbor, Kepler-725b.
Kepler-725c weighs in at roughly 10 times Earth's mass and orbits every 207.5 days, placing it squarely where temperatures could allow liquid water to exist. Located about 2,472 light-years away in the Kepler-725 system, its host star mirrors our sun in both temperature and brightness, making this planetary duo a prime candidate for future habitability studies.
"It demonstrates the potential of the TTV technique to detect low-mass planets in habitable zones of sun-like stars," says Sun Leilei of the Yunnan Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the study's lead author.
The international collaboration also included Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, the Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics and Technology, and Hamburg Observatory. According to team leader Gu Shenghong, further observations will probe Kepler-725c's atmosphere and surface conditions to assess its true habitability.
With this discovery, the TTV method joins the toolbox of space exploration, offering a fresh window onto distant worlds that hide in plain sight. As telescopes and techniques advance, who knows which hidden planets await our discovery next?
Reference(s):
New Earth-sized planet detected in habitable zone with novel method
cgtn.com
