A hidden 'super-Earth' exoplanet is dipping in and out of its habitable zone

[Admin]

With 10 times the mass of our planet, and spending only part of its orbit in the habitable zone, Kepler-725c is very different to Earth.

A hidden 'super-Earth' exoplanet is dipping in and out of its habitable zone : Read more

 

[Unclear Engineer]

A planet that large repeatedly going in and out of the calculated "habitable zone" with the frequency of its 207.5 earth-day "year" could very likely have enough water on its surface to smooth out the transient temperatures in an ocean and even on parts of any land areas. So, I see no reason to assume it would not be habitable, even by large, intelligent life forms.

But, with a thick atmosphere, life forms on such planets might not ever see a star from its surface. The evolution of scientific intelligence for a lifeform there might be entirely different from what we evolved from here on Earth.

 

[rod]

Space.com reported - "The newfound planet, called Kepler-725c, revealed itself only through "transit timing variations."..."Does this mean that Kepler-725c is only habitable for part of its 207.5-Earth-day year? What would happen to any life that might exist on the planet during the periods that it is outside of the habitable zone? Again, these are theoretical problems that scientists have been wrestling with, but now the existence of Kepler-725c suddenly makes them very real problems."

My note, using the exoplanet.eu (https://exoplanet.eu/home/) site we have 7490 confirmed now. TTV shows up in 35. Min mass is 1.0129 earth mass, max in this group is 22 Jupiter masses. Extrapolating abiogenesis from Charles Darwin warm little pond in his 1871 letter to exoplanets like Kepler-725 c or K2-18 b, needs much more work IMO. At somepoint, abiogenesis thoughts in astrobiology need to be confirmed science.]

 

[Helio]

Isn’t this more of a super Venus planet? I suspect it never reaches 1 AU at apsis. Also, the greater the ecc., the greater the luminosity on it.

 

[rod]

Helio et al. My spreadsheet using Keplerian orbit with e=0.44. Mass exoplanet = 10 earth masses. Mass of host star = 0.91 solar mass. e = 0.44. semi-major axis = 0.674 AU. Closest approach to star = 0.3774 AU, farthest orbit out to 0.97 AU. If this was in our solar system, orbit moves inside of Mercury and swings out to near where Earth is. If we lived on Earth with such an orbit, folks would have plenty to talk about when it comes to the weather and climate change I think

We have properties for Kepler-725 c listed here, https://exoplanet.eu/catalog/kepler_725_c--11052/

 

[Unclear Engineer]

The article says that the stellar heating of Kepler-725c is 1.4 times that on Earth. I think Venus is about 1.9, and rather constant. The 1.4 for Kepler-725c is an average over an orbit with a high eccentricity. The hottest parts of the orbit are the shortest, when the planet is at its closest to its star and moving at its fastest.

So, maybe somewhere between a hot-Earth and a Venus.

But, with its much larger size and potential for much different atmospheres, I would not write it off as an uninhabitable "super Venus" without some more data.

 

[Helio]

Helio et al. My spreadsheet using Keplerian orbit with e=0.44. Mass exoplanet = 10 earth masses. Mass of host star = 0.91 solar mass. e = 0.44. semi-major axis = 0.674 AU. Closest approach to star = 0.3774 AU, farthest orbit out to 0.97 AU. If this was in our solar system, orbit moves inside of Mercury and swings out to near where Earth is.

Thanks. That looks right.

Only the "optimistic HZ" equations allow planets 0.97 AU (solar equivalent apoapsis for Kepler-725).

If we lived on Earth with such an orbit, folks would have plenty to talk about when it comes to the weather and climate change I think

Indeed. But their visitor time would be short.

This is another planetary body where the porridge is a little too hot, likely more than a little, perhaps it's an "exotoast", but not burnt toast.

 

[Unclear Engineer]

I agree that humans would probably not find Kepler-725c "habitable". For one thing, its gravity is likely to be high, and its atmospheric pressure could be crushing (if it has an atmosphere).

But, it is hard to rule our some sort of life on a planet we know so little about - and we also know very little about how life begins.

Even places in our solar system, such as Titan, can be speculated to have some sort of life that is far different from the water-based version on Earth. See https://phys.org/news/2025-06-titan-liveliest-solar.html . Of course, that is the "cold version". It might be even easier to speculate about a high pressure + high temperature water version on a super-Earth.