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Image Credit: Livescience
A hidden 'super-Earth' exoplanet is dipping in and out of its habitable zone
- A 'super-Earth' exoplanet named Kepler-735c has been discovered orbiting a star 2,472 light years away via transit timing variations (TTVs), without direct detection.
- TTVs occur when a planet's transit is delayed or ahead of schedule due to the gravitational influence of other planets in its system.
- Kepler-725b, a gas giant planet, helped infer the existence of Kepler-725c, a super-Earth 10 times the mass of Earth, orbiting a yellow sun-like star.
- Kepler-725c's highly elliptical orbit with an eccentricity of 0.44 leads to extreme climate variations, with it only partially in the habitable zone.
- The exoplanet receives 1.4 times Earth's heat from its star on average, but experiences significant fluctuations in solar heating due to its orbit.
- Although Kepler-725c may only be habitable for part of its 207.5-Earth-day year, it raises questions about the potential impacts on any life it may harbor.
- The TTV technique used to discover Kepler-725c showcases the potential to detect low-mass planets in habitable zones, aiding the search for extraterrestrial life.
- Future missions like PLATO are expected to find more planets through TTVs, offering insights into the prevalence of habitable zone exoplanets.
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