Is THIS where aliens are hiding? Scientists discover a 'Super-Earth' planet in the habitable zone of a sun-like star
Now, a sensational discovery by Chinese scientists offers a promising clue that extraterrestrial life does in fact exist.
The astronomers have found a 'super-Earth' planet around 2,400 light years away where biological life could feasibly thrive.
Called Kepler-725c, the faraway world has 10 times the mass of Earth, according to the team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.
Excitingly, it's located in the 'habitable zone' – a distance from its star where it is not too hot and not too cold for liquid water to exist.
It likely has liquid water on its surface, which hints at the possibility of carbon-based life similar to that on Earth.
Just like Earth, Kepler-725c is thought to be a rocky planet, possibly covered by a water ocean and exposed land.
'Kepler-725 c might equally be a volatile-dominated water world,' the experts report in a new paper.
Kepler-725c completes one orbit of its star every 207.5 days, meaning a year there is shorter than a year on Earth.
Due to differences in its axis compared with our planet, the planet receives roughly 1.4 times the solar radiation that Earth does.
But this does not make Kepler-725c too hot to rule out the possibility of life existing on its surface, according to the researchers.
It's been described as a 'super Earth' because it has a mass that's higher than our home planet but lower than ice giants Uranus and Neptune.
It also travels in an eccentric orbit – a non-circular orbit where the distance between the orbiting body and the central body varies significantly.
The star, called Kepler-725, is significantly younger than our sun – only 1.6 billion years old, compared with our sun which is 4.6 billion years old.
Also in the same star system is Kepler-725b, a gas giant planet with a much shorter (39.64-day) orbit of the star.
As its name indicates, astronomers originally discovered the star system with the Kepler space telescope, a pioneering planet-hunting mission that launched in 2009. It spent nearly a decade in space looking for Earth-size planets orbiting other stars before being decommissioned in 2018.
For their study, the researchers used data from NASA's Kepler telescope, which would capture information about exoplanets while moving in front of their host stars 0 known as 'transiting'. This is an artist impression of the Kepler Space Telescope that was decommissioned by NASA in 2018 after nearly a decade of service
The Transit Timing Variation method
Transit Timing Variation (TTV) is a planet-detecting method that observes irregularities in predicted transit times of an already-known transiting planet.
Most exoplanets have been discovered by watching them transit (cross in front of) their stars. So although we can't see the planet itself, we can see the dip in brightness of the star as the planet blocks some of it from Earth's view.
We expect transiting planets to go around like clockwork, always taking exactly the same length of time to complete an orbit. But for many transiting planets, that's not true; the transit happens slightly too early or too late compared to the prediction.
This is an indication that there's an unseen planet also present in the system and tugging gravitationally on the transiting planet.
Source: The Planetary Society
Most 'exoplanets' (planets outside our solar system) are found by measuring the dimming of a star that happens when the planet passes in front of it, called the transit method.
Another method called radial velocity, also known as the wobble or Doppler method, can detect 'wobbles' in a star caused by the gravitational pull of an orbiting planet.
But the researchers made the discovery of this 'super-Earth' using a clever method called Transit Timing Variation (TTV), based on measurements from the Kepler space telescope.
TVV observes slight irregularities in the predicted transit times of an already-known transiting planet (in this case, Kepler-725b).
TTV is particularly well-suited for detecting small, long-orbital-period planets that are otherwise difficult to discover using the other two methods, the researchers say.
By analysing the TTV signals of Kepler-725b, a gas giant planet with a 39.64-day orbit in the same system, the team could infer information about Kepler-725c, including its mass and orbit.
Kepler-725c may belong to a new class of habitable super-Earths (alternatively known as 'mini-Neptunes') known as Hycean planets.
It has been proposed that Hycean planets, with massive oceans and hydrogen-rich atmospheres, could allow a 'significantly wider discovery space in the search for potentially habitable planets', the team say.
Researchers achieved a breakthrough by using the Transit Timing Variation (TTV) technique for the first time to discover a super-Earth
Their research, published in Nature Astronomy, marks the first time a planet in the habitable zone of a solar-type star has been discovered using the TVV method.
'This discovery demonstrates that the transit timing variation method enables the detection and accurate mass measurement of a super-Earth/mini-Neptune within a solar-like star's habitable zone,' they add.
In 1995, the discovery of the first exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star opened the door to exploring the profound mystery of if other life exists.
Thirty years later, the existence of extraterrestrial life is still yet to be confirmed, although recently scientists gave a tantalizing update about another planet, K2-18b.
K2-18b has large quantities of chemicals in its atmosphere that are suggestive of living organisms.
What have scientists found at Planet K2-18b?
Investigations into planet K2-18b are being led by Dr Nikku Madhusudhan, an astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge, who called it a 'hycean' world – a rocky planet with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere and oceans of water.
Planet K2-18b – more than eight times the mass of Earth and over twice as big – was discovered 10 years ago, but it was only in 2019 that the presence of water vapour in K2-18b's atmosphere was reported.
Then, in 2023, the James Webb telescope detected carbon dioxide and methane in its atmosphere, as well as a shortage of ammonia – a 'very profound' finding because it indicates there's a water ocean underneath a hydrogen-rich atmosphere.
Arguably even more exciting, however, is the discovery of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) in the planet's atmosphere.
On Earth, DMS and DMDS are only produced by life, primarily microbial life such as marine phytoplankton – suggesting a similar form of life on the distant planet.
In fact, scientists have been unable to think of any natural geological or chemical process that could create DMS without living organisms.
What's more, concentrations of DMS and DMDS in K2-18b's atmosphere are estimated to be thousands of times stronger – more than 10 parts per million by volume compared with one part per billion on Earth – conjuring a scenario of an ocean world teeming with life.
However, the team 'remain cautious' and want to obtain more data before officially announcing that life has been found on another world.
The observations have reached the 'three-sigma' level of statistical significance – meaning there is a 0.3 per cent probability that they occurred by chance.
To reach the accepted classification for scientific discovery, the observations would have to cross the five-sigma threshold, meaning there would be below a 0.00006 per cent probability they occurred by chance.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Nagasaki mayor says never again as Japanese city commemorates 80th anniversary of US atom bomb attack
Nagaski's mayor yesterday pleaded for an end to conflicts raging worldwide on the 80th anniversary of the US atom bomb attack which destroyed the Japanese city. 'Eighty years since that day, who could have imagined our world would become like this? Immediately cease from disputes in which force is met with force,' Shiro Suzuki said during a solemn ceremony at Nagasaki peace park. He added: 'To make Nagasaki the last atomic bombing site for ever, we will go hand-in-hand with global citizens and devote our efforts toward the abolition of nuclear weapons and the realisation of everlasting world peace.' The US dropped the bomb on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, killing 70,000 by the end of that year, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima that killed 140,000. It forced Japan 's surrender on August 15, 1945, ending the war. At 11:02am yesterday, the exact time when the plutonium bomb exploded above Nagasaki, officials from more than 90 countries joined in a moment of silence at the peace park as a bell rang. Dozens of doves were released after the speech by Mr Suzuki, whose parents survived the attack. Water offerings were made in a symbolic gesture to remember blast victims whose skin was burning and who begged for water. The US dropped the bomb on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, killing 70,000 by the end of that year, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima that killed 140,000. It forced Japan 's surrender on August 15, 1945, ending the war Survivors and their families gathered at the peace park and nearby hypocentre park – the bomb's detonation spot – hours before the ceremony. 'I simply seek a world without war,' said Koichi Kawano, 85, who laid flowers at the hypocentre monument. Others prayed at churches in Nagasaki, home to Catholic converts persecuted in feudal times. The twin bells at Urakami Cathedral, which was destroyed in the bombing, also rang together again after one of the bells that had gone missing following the attack was restored by volunteers. Despite their pain from wounds, discrimination and illnesses from radiation, survivors have publicly committed to a shared goal of abolishing nuclear weapons. But they fear the world is moving in the opposite direction. 'There are only two things I long for: the abolition of nuclear weapons and prohibition of war,' said survivor Fumi Takeshita. 'I only see a world where nuclear weapons are never used and everyone can live in peace.'
The Sun
3 hours ago
- The Sun
How elite WW2 special forces unit the Chindits smashed Japanese supply lines in Burmar ahead of anniversary of VJ Day
THEY were the lions of the jungle – 10,000 British troops led by an eccentric genius. With their distinctive slouch hats, the Chindits were the highly trained special forces who fought the Japanese, often hundreds of miles behind enemy lines, deep in the steaming, fetid jungles of the Far East. 7 7 7 Next Friday marks the anniversary of VJ Day, when, after six years, World War Two finally ended with the Allied victory over Japan. By the time Japanese Emperor Hirohito officially surrendered on August 15, 1945, the war in Europe had been over for more than three months and the 365,000 British troops fighting in the Far East became known as the 'Forgotten Army', after its operations in the Allies' Burma campaign were largely overlooked by the Press at the time. Today, 80 years after that victory, only two British Chindits are left alive — 104-year-old Charlie Richards and Sid Machin, 101. Sid, of Christchurch, Dorset, will be among nearly three dozen VJ veterans, aged 98 to 105, who will attend a national service of commemoration hosted by the Royal British Legion on August 15. Against the odds The veterans will certainly not be forgotten when they join the King and Queen at the moving ceremony at Staffordshire's National Memorial Arboretum. The royal couple will pay their respects in the Arboretum's Far East corner, which includes a monument to the Chindits. In early 1942 Burma's then capital, Rangoon — now called Yangon — was overrun by Japanese forces intent on pushing north to invade India. A maverick British military leader, Brigadier Orde Wingate, came up with a daring plan to create a multi-national force of lightly equipped men, who would work in small teams hundreds of miles inside enemy territory. Oddball Wingate often gave orders in the nude and sported a straggly beard, supposedly to keep mosquitoes away. When dressed, he ate raw onions which he often kept in the pocket of his filthy uniform, and he would dangle a large alarm clock from his belt to remind his men that time was against them. World War Two veterans come together to mark the 80th anniversary of their victory Wingate named his highly trained troops after the only creature in Buddhism that is permitted to use force — Chinthe, the lion-headed dragon that sits outside every sacred pagoda in Burma, now known as Myanmar. His men, including Major James Lumley, father of actress Joanna, called themselves the Chindits. Flying in by glider, they set up strongholds behind enemy lines from where groups of men would attack the Japanese, often with bayonets drawn, in hand-to-hand combat. A constant stream of transport aircraft brought in supplies that included not just ammo and food but also mules to carry equipment. I have never before listened to anybody who so compelled my attention, who dominated his audience Col Charles Mercer Light ambulance planes would land on remote airstrips hacked out of the jungle to evacuate the wounded, three at a time. Despite early setbacks, the Chindits' bravery and tenacity against the odds raised morale and showed how British soldiers could live and fight in the jungle. They also attracted the attention of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who called Wingate 'a man of genius'. Col Charles Mercer, who died recently aged 105, recalled: 'He was quite a small man, not very military in bearing. "I have never before listened to anybody who so compelled my attention, who dominated his audience. "He was a fearless, inspiring leader.' 7 7 7 Veteran Chindit Charlie, who was 22 when he joined the unit, recalled how, after six months of hard training, Wingate told the men they were 'on the adventure of a lifetime'. But he also warned them: 'Many of you are going to die, or suffer wounds, or near starvation. All of you will meet hardship worse than anything you have imagined.' Charlie and Sid took part in Operation Thursday, when 85 gliders towed by US aircraft took off on a moonlit night in March 1944 to pass over 7,000ft peaks to land 150 miles behind the front line. The Chindits had been ordered to relieve comrades who were holed up in a jungle base codenamed White City, but they came under attack almost every night. So many soldiers on both sides died that the stench of death was overwhelming. Charlie, from Kettering, Northants, recalled: 'The whole place was getting so putrid because of the number of Japanese bodies outside the perimeter that the pilots of incoming planes said they had no need of maps for the last few miles — they could smell their way in.' Wingate's unit adopted a strategy of near silence to avoid alerting the enemy, and Charlie said: 'The rule was, everyone spoke softly, even sergeants. "Whispers were the order of the day and even this made us a bit nervous and alert to every sound.' In our main picture, taken by a wartime photographer from Life magazine, a group of Chindits wave joyfully at their RAF rescue plane but they had been told: 'Cheer, but don't make a sound.' The casualty rate was still brutal. Of the 400 men in Charlie's column, just 140 were unscathed. The rest were either dead, wounded or struck down by disease. Wingate, who by then was an acting Major General, died in 1944 in a plane crash aged 41. At the time he was carrying a nomination for a Victoria Cross for Chindit Lt George Cairns, who had had his arm hacked off with a sword by a Japanese soldier. Cairns, 30, killed the soldier, picked up the sword and carried on fighting. Just before he died from his wounds he said: 'Have we won? 'Did we do our stuff? Don't worry about me.' Because the nomination was lost in Wingate's plane wreckage it was five years before Cairns was awarded his medal posthumously — the fourth VC given to a Chindit.
BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
It shocked the US market but has China's DeepSeek changed AI?
US President Donald Trump had been in office scarcely a week when a new Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) app called DeepSeek jolted Silicon DeepSeek-R1 shot to the top of the Apple charts as the most downloaded free app in the firm said at the time its new chatbot rivalled ChatGPT. Not only that. They asserted it had cost a mere fraction to claims – and the app's sudden surge in popularity – wiped $600bn (£446bn) or 17% off the market value of chip giant Nvidia, marking the largest one-day loss for a single stock in the history of the US stock other tech stocks with exposure to AI were caught in the downdraft, also cast doubt on American AI dominance. Up until then, China had been seen as having fallen behind the US. Now, it seemed as though China had catapulted to the capitalist Marc Andreessen referred to the arrival of DeepSeek-R1 as "AI's Sputnik moment," a reference to the Soviet satellite that had kicked off the space race between the US and the USSR more than a half century earlier. Still relevant It has now been six months since DeepSeek stunned the China's breakthrough app has largely dropped out of the headlines. It's no longer the hot topic at happy hour here in San Francisco. But DeepSeek hasn't challenged certain key assumptions about AI that had been championed by American executives like Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI."We were on a path where bigger was considered better," according to Sid Sheth, CEO of AI chip startup maxing out on data centres, servers, chips, and the electricity to run it all wasn't the way forward after DeepSeek ostensibly not having access to the most powerful tech available at the time, Sheth told the BBC that it showed that "with smarter engineering, you actually can build a capable model".The surge of interest in DeepSeek took hold over a weekend in late January, before corporate IT personnel could move to stop employees from flocking to organisations caught on the following Monday, many scrambled to ban workers from using the app as worries set in about whether user data was potentially being shared with the People's Republic of China, where DeepSeek is while exact numbers aren't available, plenty of Americans still use DeepSeek Silicon Valley start-ups have opted to stick with DeepSeek in lieu of more expensive AI models from US firms in a bid to cut down on investor told me for cash-strapped firms, funds saved by continuing to use DeepSeek are helping to pay for critical needs such as additional headcount. They are, however, being careful. In online forums, users explain how to run DeepSeek-R1 on their own devices rather than online using DeepSeek's servers in China - a workaround they believe can protect their data from being shared surreptitiously."It's a good way to use the model without being concerned about what it's exfiltrating" to China, said Christopher Caen, CEO of Mill Pond Research. US-China rivalry DeepSeek's arrival also marked a turning point in the US-China AI rivalry, some experts say. "China was seen as playing catch-up in large language models until this point, with competitive models but always trailing the best western ones," policy analyst Wendy Chang of the Mercator Institute for China Studies told the BBC.A large language model (LLM) is a reasoning system trained to predict the next word in a given sentence or phrase. DeepSeek changed perceptions when it claimed to have achieved a leading model for a fraction of the computational resources and costs common among its American had spent $5bn (£3.7bn) in 2024 alone. By contrast, DeepSeek researchers said they had developed DeepSeek-R1 – which came out on top of OpenAI's o1 model across multiple benchmarks – for just $5.6m (£4.2m). "DeepSeek revealed the competitiveness of China's AI landscape to the world," Chang AI developers have managed to capitalize on this shift. AI-related deals and other announcements trumpeted by the Trump administration and major American tech companies are often framed as critical to staying ahead of AI czar David Sacks noted the technology would have "profound ramifications for both the economy and national security" when the administration unveiled its AI Action Plan last month."It's just very important that America continues to be the dominant power in AI," Sacks has never managed to quell concerns over the security implications of its Chinese US government has been assessing the company's links to Beijing, as first reported by Reuters in June.A senior US State Department official told the BBC they understood "DeepSeek has willingly provided, and will likely continue to provide, support to China's military and intelligence operations".DeepSeek did not respond to the BBC's request for comment but the company's privacy policy states that its servers are located in the People's Republic of China."When you access our services, your Personal Data may be processed and stored in our servers in the People's Republic of China," the policy says. "This may be a direct provision of your Personal Data to us or a transfer that we or a third-party make." A new approach? Earlier this week, OpenAI reignited talk about DeepSeek after releasing a pair of AI were the first free and open versions – meaning they can be downloaded and modified - released by the American AI giant in five years, well before ChatGPT ushered in the consumer AI era."You can draw a straight line from DeepSeek to what OpenAI announced this week," said d-Matrix's Sheth. "DeepSeek proved that smaller, more efficient models could still deliver impressive performance—and that changed the industry's mindset," Sheth told the BBC. "What we're seeing now is the next wave of that thinking: a shift toward right-sized models that are faster, cheaper, and ready to deploy at scale."But to others, for the major American players in AI, the old approach appears to be alive and days after releasing the free models, OpenAI unveiled GPT-5. In the run-up, the company said it significantly ramped up its computing capacity and AI infrastructure.A slew of announcements about new data centre clusters needed for AI has come as American tech companies have been competing for top-tier AI CEO Mark Zuckerberg has ploughed billions of dollars to fulfil his AI ambitions, and tried to lure staff from rivals with $100m pay fortunes of the tech giants seemed more tethered than ever to their commitment to AI spending, as evidenced by the series of blowout results revealed this past tech earnings shares of Nvidia, which plunged just after DeepSeek's arrival, have rebounded – touching new highs that have made it the world's most valuable company in history."The initial narrative has proven a bit of a red herring," said Mill Pond Research's are back to a future in which AI will ostensibly depend on more data centres, more chips, and more power. In other words, DeepSeek's shake-up of the status quo hasn't what about DeepSeek itself?"DeepSeek now faces challenges sustaining its momentum," said Marina Zhang, an associate professor at the University of Technology due in part to operational setbacks but also to intense competition from companies in the US and China, she notes that the company's next product, DeepSeek-R2, has reportedly been delayed. One reason? A shortage of high-end chips. Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here.
