Astronomers appear to have identified a new planet strikingly similar to Earth at a distance of about 146 light-years from our planet, opening yet another chapter in the search for habitable worlds outside our solar system.

The candidate exoplanet is named HD 137010 b and was identified using data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope, which operated from 2009 to 2018 with the mission of detecting Earth-like planets.

According to researchers, the planet seems to have a size and orbit comparable to Earth’s, while it may also be located within the so-called “habitable zone” of its star — that is, at the right distance for liquid water to potentially exist.

As reported by the BBC, Kepler detected planets through the so-called transit method, observing tiny decreases in a star’s brightness when a planet passes in front of it.

The strange signal that appeared only once

Alexander Venner of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, lead author of the study, explained that the particularly interesting aspect is that scientists recorded only a single transit of the planet across its star.

As he noted, after a malfunction in Kepler in 2013, the mission was transformed into the so-called K2 mission, during which the telescope observed different regions of the sky for about 80 days at a time.

This makes the detection of planets with Earth-like orbits especially difficult, since they may pass in front of their stars only once during that period.

Scientists identified a large and unusual “dip” in the brightness of a bright star, which could be explained by the transit of a planet roughly the size of Earth.

Because only one transit was recorded, researchers cannot yet calculate the planet’s orbital period with precision. However, they estimate that it most likely completes one orbit around its star approximately every year.

Why HD 137010 b is considered so important

Researchers emphasize that one of HD 137010 b’s most significant characteristics is that it orbits a fairly bright star.

This is considered crucial because most exoplanets discovered so far orbit dim stars, which makes further observations considerably more difficult.

In the case of HD 137010 b, the brightness of the host star may eventually allow scientists to use ground-based telescopes and more advanced instruments to study properties such as the planet’s mass and atmosphere.

Venner also explained that the planet’s signal had initially been flagged by citizens participating in the Planet Hunters program, a “citizen science” initiative in which volunteers helped analyze Kepler’s data.

As he noted, in order to fully confirm that HD 137010 b is indeed a planet, new observations are required to prove that the phenomenon repeats at regular intervals.

Scientists point out that current instruments still lack the necessary precision for complete confirmation. However, they express high expectations for future observatories, such as NASA’s planned Habitable Worlds Observatory.

HD 137010 b is already considered one of the strongest candidates for future observation, as it could provide new evidence about whether Earth-like planets exist in other star systems.