HD 137010 b represents a breakthrough in exoplanet hunting, offering the first potential Earth twin transiting a nearby, bright, Sun-like star ideal for follow-up studies. This rocky world sits at the outer edge of its star's habitable zone, where a CO2-rich atmosphere could warm it into habitability with 40-51% odds of yielding a temperate or watery oasis. The precision single transit detection overcomes barriers that have long evaded Earth-like orbit discoveries.
HD 137010 b stands as the perfect target for future life-detection telescopes, being almost exactly Earth-size with an Earth-like 355-day orbit around a bright star just 146 light-years away. Unlike rocky planets around tempestuous M-dwarf stars that blast away atmospheres, this world orbits a calmer Sun-like star far more likely to sustain an atmosphere based on current models. Astronomers have done their due diligence ruling out alternatives, making this the ideal candidate already known to exist.
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