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The new planet is estimated to be only six per cent larger than Earth, with a surface temperature more similar to Mars, potentially below -70 degrees.
The study found the candidate planet is located near the outer edge of the habitable zone, where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface.
HD 137010 b was spotted when it briefly crossed in front of its star during three months of Kepler observations.
The candidate planet left only the faintest trace, clue was detected by a team of amateur citizen scientists including Venner.
“I contributed to this citizen science project called Planet Hunters back when I was in secondary school, and it was a big part of how I got into research,” Venner said.
“It was an amazing experience to go back to this work and dig up such an important discovery.”
University of Southern Queensland astrophysicist Dr Chelsea Huang, a co-author of the study and Venner’s PhD supervisor, said to date most of the potential habitable planets were around small dim stars.
“This causes a problem because these planets are so close to the host star that they experience an extended period of high-energy radiation,” Huang said.
“Scientists expect this high-energy radiation will blast the atmosphere away of this planet and make them inhabitable.”
Huang said the team expects this new candidate planet will have more favourable conditions for habitability.
Venner said HD 137010 b was the first planet candidate with Earth-like properties to transit a Sun-like star bright enough for substantial follow-up observations.
“While current generations of astronomical instruments cannot fully characterise this newly discovered planet, it could become a prime target for future radial velocity instruments aiming to detect Earth analogues,” he said.
“Future space missions designed to directly image Earth-like planets, like the NASA Habitable Worlds Observatory, may also be capable of capturing images of HD 137010 b.”
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