An international research team led by the Yunnan Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has discovered a potentially habitable super-Earth in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star named Kepler-725. The planet, named Kepler-725c, was identified using a novel method called Transit Timing Variation (TTV) and is approximately 10 times more massive than Earth. It completes its orbit around its host star in 207.5 days and has drawn attention for its potential to support liquid water on its surface. The discovery was published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
This achievement marks a breakthrough in the detection of unseen, low-mass planets and provides critical technical support for China’s upcoming space projects, such as the China Space Station Telescope (CSST) and the Earth 2.0 (ET) initiative. The discovery was made by analyzing orbital anomalies in a known gas giant within the Kepler-725 system, allowing researchers to infer the existence of Kepler-725c indirectly.