An artist's impression of a super-Earth exoplanet. (Photo credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser)
A giant “super-Earth” has been discovered with extreme climate conditions that make it habitable only in a certain part of its orbit, which circles a star 2,472 light years away. And what's most amazing is that it was identified even without direct observation.
The discovery of the exoplanet, known as Kepler-735c, was made possible by a phenomenon called transit timing variations, or TTVs.
Let's start with the basics. One of the main methods for detecting exoplanets is to watch when they pass in front of their star. During a transit, they block a small portion of the star's light, and based on the magnitude of this dimming, we can estimate the size of the transiting planet. In fact, this is how the most successful exoplanet hunter to date, NASA's Kepler space telescope, has discovered more than 3,300 confirmed exoplanets and thousands more potential candidates.
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How Transit Timing Changes Helped Reveal Hidden Planet Kepler-725c.
However, the transit-based exoplanet detection method has its limitations. One is that the approach is primarily aimed at planets with short orbits that are close to their stars, meaning their transits are more frequent and easier to detect. Transits also require a precise alignment between the orbital plane of the planetary system and our line of sight. Even a small deviation can result in us not being able to observe planets that are in wider transit orbits.
However, these invisible planets in wider orbits can still manifest through TTV. Usually, transits occur with regularity, as if on a schedule, but in
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