SYDNEY, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- Astronomers in Australia have led an international team that identified a "potentially habitable" Earth-sized planet candidate about 150 light-years from Earth.
The planet, known as HD 137010 b, orbits a Sun-like star and is about six percent larger than Earth, a research team led by Australia's University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ) reported Tuesday in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The planet candidate was described as "where Earth meets Mars" due to its Earth-like size and Mars-like distance from its Sun-like host star, according to the study by UniSQ researchers with collaborators at Harvard University and the University of Oxford.
Researchers need to observe one more transit to confirm HD 137010 b as a planet, instead of a planet candidate, the study said, adding if verified, it would be the only known rocky world in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star. ■
