An international team of astronomers from China and Germany identified a planet outside the solar system with the potential to house life. Called Kepler-725C, the planet is a super terrae about 10 times the mass of our planet and was located approximately 2,400 light years away in the habitable zone of a sun-like star.
The discovery was made through the technique of Traffic Time Variation (TTV), which detects the gravitational influence of a planet hidden when measuring variations in the traffic of another planet already known in the same system. It was analyzing the behavior of the Kepler-725B gaseous planet that scientists inferred the presence and orbital characteristics of the new candidate.
Kepler-725C orbits its star in about 207 days, which indicates thermal conditions that could allow liquid water to exist. According to Gu Shenghong, study leader at Yunnan Observatories, the discovery is promising, but more analysis is needed to assess whether the planet actually has habitable environments.
The study, conducted by Chinese institutions and the Hamburg Observatory, was published on Tuesday in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy. The team stressed the potential of the TTV technique to reveal new habitable worlds, especially in sun -like star systems.
Source: https://www.chinahoje.net/cientistas-chineses-e-alemaes-descobrem-planeta-potencialmente-habitavel-a-24-mil-anos-luz/
