{"id":273589,"date":"2026-01-31T11:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T11:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/273589\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T11:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T11:01:10","slug":"cool-earth-sized-exoplanet-found-orbiting-nearby-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/273589\/","title":{"rendered":"Cool, Earth-Sized Exoplanet Found Orbiting Nearby Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

Astronomers have discovered a new exoplanet orbiting the nearby K-dwarf star HD 137010 after detecting a single, shallow transit in the archival data from NASA\u2019s Kepler extended K2 mission.<\/p>\n

\"HD<\/a><\/p>\n

HD 137010b is estimated to be only 6% larger than Earth, with a surface temperature more similar to Mars \u2014 potentially below minus 70 degrees Celsius. Image credit: NASA \/ JPL-Caltech \/ Keith Miller, Caltech & IPAC.<\/p>\n

HD 137010<\/a> is a K3.5V dwarf star located about 146 light-years away in the constellation of Libra.<\/p>\n

Its age is estimated to lie between about 4.8 and 10 billion years, and its low level of magnetic activity is consistent with an old, relatively quiet star.<\/p>\n

Also known as BD-19 4097, HIC 75398, 2MASS J15242123-1944215 or TYC 6179-1111-1, the star has a visual magnitude of 10.1, making it one of the brightest stars known to host an Earth-sized planet with temperate orbital properties.<\/p>\n

Designated HD 137010b, the newly-discovered planet was detected during K2 Campaign 15, when NASA\u2019s Kepler space telescope observed the parent star for nearly three months in 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrevious discoveries of Earth-sized planets in habitable zones are mostly around so-called red dwarfs, which are much smaller and dimmer than our Sun,\u201d said<\/a> University of Southern Queensland astronomer Alexander Venner, first author of the study.<\/p>\n

\u201cScientists have concerns that these planets might lose their entire atmospheres due to high-energy radiation from their host stars, leaving them uninhabitable to known life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn contrast, the host star of HD 137010b has properties much closer to our Sun, which makes it more likely that the planet could sustain an atmosphere based on current theoretical models.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the study, Dr. Venner and colleagues examined K2 data, nearby stellar light curves, archival imaging, radial velocity measurements, and astrometric data to assess the nature of the signal, which lasted about 10 hours.<\/p>\n

The checks strongly indicate that the transit occurred on the target star and is astrophysical in origin, rather than being caused by background contamination, a nearby eclipsing binary, or a solar system object.<\/p>\n

From the transit depth, the astronomers derived a planetary radius of about 1.06 times that of Earth.<\/p>\n

Based on the transit duration and stellar properties, they estimate an orbital period of roughly 355 days.<\/p>\n

At this distance from the host star, HD 137010b is estimated to receive roughly 29% of the stellar flux received by Earth from the Sun, placing it near the outer edge of the star\u2019s habitable zone.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf HD 137010b has an atmosphere like that of Earth or Mars, it is likely to be colder than Antarctica,\u201d Dr. Venner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut a thicker atmosphere could warm the planet enough to allow liquid water, which might be a good environment for life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile current generations of astronomical instruments cannot fully characterize this newly-discovered planet, it could become a prime target for future radial velocity instruments aiming to detect Earth analogues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFuture space missions designed to directly image Earth-like planets, like the NASA Habitable Worlds Observatory, may also be capable of capturing images of HD 137010b.\u201d<\/p>\n

The discovery is reported in a paper<\/a> in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

Alexander Venner et al. 2026. A Cool Earth-sized Planet Candidate Transiting a Tenth Magnitude K-dwarf from K2. ApJL 997, L38; doi: 10.3847\/2041-8213\/adf06f<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Astronomers have discovered a new exoplanet orbiting the nearby K-dwarf star HD 137010 after detecting a single, shallow…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[910,49380,16447,133461,133462,61,60,133463,133464,33892,91,82,247,9315,32068],"class_list":{"0":"post-273589","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-exoplanet","9":"tag-habitability","10":"tag-habitable-zone","11":"tag-hd-137010","12":"tag-hd-137010b","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-k-dwarf-star","16":"tag-k2","17":"tag-kepler","18":"tag-nasa","19":"tag-science","20":"tag-space","21":"tag-star","22":"tag-transit"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}