Sci-Tech

Discovery of a 'super Earth' in the habitable zone of sun like stars

2025-06-04   

Recently, an international joint research team led by Gu Shenghong, a researcher at the Yunnan Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, first used the transit time variation (TTV) inversion technology to find a "super earth" with a mass of about 10 times that of the Earth in the habitable zone of a sun like star, Kepler 725c. The relevant research results were published in the international academic journal Nature Astronomy on the 3rd. Is there another planet like Earth that is suitable for the existence of life? This is a long-standing cosmic puzzle that people have been concerned about. The technical solution adopted by the research team this time is different from the commonly used transit method and radial velocity method. Gu Shenghong introduced that the Lingxing method is used to observe the event of a planet blocking the host star's constant light, while the radial velocity method is used to detect the slight oscillation of the host star dragged by the planet; TTV technology detects the existence of a planet to be discovered by measuring the transit time of another planet that resonates with its orbit. The host star around Kepler-725c is a G9V type star, similar in spectral type to the Sun, with an age of only 1.6 billion years and a more intense magnetic field activity than the Sun. The orbital period of this planet is about 207.5 days, which is similar to that of Earth, and it is located in the habitable zone where liquid water can exist, providing conditions for the existence of terrestrial life. This discovery provides a new way to explore exoplanets, making TTV inversion technology a powerful tool for discovering "invisible planets" in the habitable zone of solar like stars; On the other hand, it provides new observation targets and detection technology support for China's future space astronomy missions, such as the China Manned Space Survey Telescope (CSST) and the Earth 2.0 (ET) project. The paper reviewers and journal editors believe that as the detected planets move further away from their host stars and have lower masses, the new pathway established by this discovery is a significant advancement, providing a complementary path for detecting habitable exoplanets beyond our system. This discovery brings people one step closer to finding a "blue planet" similar to Earth, and has the potential to unravel the eternal mystery of whether humans are "lonely" or not. (New Society)

Edit:He Chuanning Responsible editor:Su Suiyue

Source:Sci-Tech Daily

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