Hey, space fans! 🌌 Guess what? Scientists have just found a brand-new planet that’s a lot like Earth! 🌍
Meet Kepler-725c 🪐
This new planet is called Kepler-725c. It’s about 10 times heavier than Earth, which means it’s a pretty big deal! Even cooler, it’s in what’s called the “habitable zone” around its star. That’s a special area where temperatures might be just right for liquid water to exist. And where there’s water, there could be life! 💧👽
How Did They Find It? 🔭
Usually, scientists find new planets by watching them pass in front of their stars or by seeing the star wobble because of the planet’s gravity. But this time, scientists from the Chinese mainland and Germany used a different trick! They noticed that another planet, a gas giant named Kepler-725b, was wobbling a bit in its orbit. By studying these wobbles, they figured out that Kepler-725c was there, even though they couldn’t see it directly! Isn’t that amazing? 🤩
Why Is This Exciting? 🚀
Kepler-725c orbits its star every 207.5 days, which is about two-thirds of an Earth year. The star it’s orbiting is a lot like our sun, which makes scientists think this planet could have conditions suitable for life. 🌞
One of the scientists, Sun Leilei from the Yunnan Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that this discovery shows how we can find more planets using this cool method! 🎉
What’s Next? 🛸
Even though Kepler-725c meets some key criteria for being habitable, scientists need to study it more to see if it could really support life like we have on Earth. Who knows? Maybe one day we’ll find signs of alien life there! 🛸👽
This exciting discovery was made by a team from the Yunnan Observatories, in collaboration with Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, the Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics and Technology, and Hamburg Observatory. The search for new worlds continues! 🌟
Reference(s):
New Earth-sized planet detected in habitable zone with novel method
cgtn.com
