Scientists Discover Massive ‘super-Earth’, possibly supporting life
Scientists Discover Massive ‘super-Earth’, possibly supporting life
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Scientists have discovered a massive super-Earth named Kepler-725c in the habitable zone of a G9V star about 2,472 light years from Earth, Earth.com reported. Using the transit timing variation (TTV) method, researchers from Yunnan Observatories and international partners detected Kepler-725c by analyzing the gravitational effects on a neighboring warm Jupiter, Kepler-725b. This technique bypasses limitations of traditional transit and radial velocity methods, allowing detection of planets that do not transit their stars visibly.
Kepler-725c orbits its star every 207.5 days at approximately 0.674 AU, receiving about 1.4 times the solar radiation Earth gets, potentially allowing moderate temperatures suitable for life. The planet’s mass, up to 10 times that of Earth, suggests it could share Earth-like properties such as rocky surfaces or water retention.
This discovery highlights TTV’s effectiveness in finding non-transiting planets in habitable zones and supports future missions like Europe’s PLATO. While promising, confirming habitability requires further direct imaging and atmospheric study. The research was funded by Chinese science foundations and published in Nature Astronomy.
