Astronomers spot new Earth-sized planet near habitable zone 146 light-year away

The planet is estimated to be about six per cent larger than Earth and follows a roughly 355-day orbit, according to the study.

30 Jan 2026 08:33am

This NASA handout illustration released on May 28, 2024 shows an ice-encrusted, Earth-mass rogue planet drifting through space alone. The Euclid space telescope has discovered seven more rogue planets, shining a light on these dark and lonely worlds, which float freely through the universe untethered to any star. Without being bound to a star -- like the Earth is to the Sun -- there are no days or years on these planets, which languish in perpetual night. (Photo by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / AFP)

ISTANBUL - Astronomers have identified a new Earth-sized planet orbiting a sun-like star about 146 light-years from Earth, raising fresh interest in nearby worlds that could support life, according to a recent study, Anadolu Ajansi (AA) reported.

The candidate, known as HD 137010 b, was detected using data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope’s K2 mission collected in 2017 and analysed by an international team led by University of Southern Queensland (USQ) researcher Alexander Venner.

Their findings were published on Tuesday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The planet is estimated to be about six per cent larger than Earth and follows a roughly 355-day orbit, according to the study.

Researchers said it has "about a 50 per cent chance of residing in the habitable zone” of its star, though its surface temperature may be closer to Mars and potentially below -94°F (-70°C).

"What’s very exciting about this particular Earth-sized planet is that its star is only [about] 150 light-years away from our solar system,” said co-author Chelsea Huang of USQ, adding that its relative proximity makes it a promising target for future telescopes.

"The next best planet around a sun-like star, in a habitable zone, [Kepler-186f] is about four times farther away and 20 times fainter,” she said.

The faint signal revealing the planet was first flagged by citizen scientists, including lead author Venner, who said: "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.”

"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,” he added. - BERNAMA-ANADOLU