New discovery: A planet called Kepler-725c may be suitable for biological life.
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New discovery: A planet called Kepler-725c may be suitable for biological life.
According to the latest research by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the planet called Kepler-725c may have the potential to host life with the presence of liquid water. The features of this planet, which is 2,400 light-years away, are causing excitement in the scientific world.
The question of whether we are alone in the universe has been one of the most curious and debated topics throughout human history. Fortunately, a recent exciting discovery by Chinese scientists has offered a potential clue that will bring us one step closer to this question.
Researchers announced that they have found a strong indication that biological life is possible on a "super-Earth" planet called Kepler-725c. Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences state that Kepler-725c has a mass about 10 times that of Earth and is 2,400 light-years away from us. This planet is located in a distance called the "habitable zone" from its star. The habitable zone refers to the area where the heat from the star is within a temperature range that can sustain liquid water. The possibility of liquid water on the surface of Kepler-725c means that this planet may have the potential to host carbon-based life.
Kepler-725c is described as a "super-Earth" because its mass is greater than Earth's but smaller than ice giants such as Uranus and Neptune. According to research, Kepler-725c's surface is most likely a rocky planet covered with oceans and containing land areas. However, the possibility of the planet being a water world is not ruled out. It is stated that this planet completes one revolution around its star in 207.5 days, meaning that it has a shorter year than Earth. In addition, due to axial differences, the solar radiation Kepler-725c receives from its star is approximately 1.4 times that of Earth. However, this does not eliminate the possibility of life on the planet's surface.
Its distance from its star varies
The orbit of Kepler-725c has a very interesting feature. The distance of the planet from its star is not constant and changes significantly throughout the year. The system in which this planet is located includes a star called Kepler-725. This star is much younger than the Sun and is only 1.6 billion years old. Another planet known as Kepler-725b is also located in the same system; this planet is defined as a gas giant that completes its orbit every 39.64 days.
The Kepler-725 star system takes its name from the Kepler space telescope, which was launched in 2009 and ended its operations in 2018. Kepler was a pioneering mission searching for Earth-sized planets around other stars. Most exoplanets are discovered using the transit method, which measures the decrease in the light of the stars as they pass in front of them. However, Kepler-725c was found using a different discovery method, the "Transit Time Variation (TTV)" method. This method analyzes small irregularities in the transit times of a known planet (Kepler-725b) and reveals the existence of new planets.
The TTV method is seen as a very suitable technique especially for small planets with long orbital periods and difficult to discover with other methods. By examining the signals from Kepler-725b, important data about the mass and orbit of Kepler-725c were obtained. This discovery also means that a planet in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star has been detected for the first time with the TTV method.
Kepler-725c may be included in a new class of potentially habitable super-Earths called "Hycean planets". It is thought that these planets may have large areas covered with oceans and hydrogen-rich atmospheres. The researchers state that this discovery is an important step that further expands the search for life in the universe.