In a major breakthrough, NASA scientists have confirmed the existence of a giant exoplanet named Kepler-139f, orbiting a distant star far beyond our solar system. Weighing 36 times more than Earth, the newly identified world has been classified as a “Super-Earth” and could reshape what we know about planetary systems.
Discovered in 2025, Kepler-139f had remained undetected for years despite its massive size. It circles a G-type star—a star much like our Sun—and takes about 355 Earth days to complete a single orbit.
What makes this find remarkable is how long the planet went unnoticed. According to scientists, its position in space made it nearly invisible using standard detection tools. It was only through gravitational clues—tiny changes in nearby planetary orbits—that researchers were able to uncover its presence.
How the Planet Was Found
NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope originally collected the data, using a method that watches for brief dimming in a star’s brightness as planets pass in front of it. But Kepler-139f didn’t fall in the right line of sight to create such a signal. Instead, it gave itself away by causing irregularities in the orbits of other planets in the system.
These slight delays, known as “transit timing variations,” or TTVs, hinted that another large object was nearby. Scientists on the ground followed up using a different method called radial velocity. By measuring subtle movements in the star caused by the planet’s pull, they were able to confirm its existence and estimate its size.
The Science Behind the Discovery
Caleb Lammers, a researcher at Princeton University, was part of the team that pieced together the mystery. He explained that TTVs are often key to finding planets that don’t show up using traditional techniques.
“When we see timing changes in known planets that can’t be explained, it usually means there’s another body affecting their motion,” Lammers said.
He and co-researcher Joshua Winn, a longtime member of the Kepler mission, used both timing and velocity data to identify the hidden planet. Their analysis built on earlier findings of another gas giant in the same system, Kepler-139e.
Why It Matters
The discovery of Kepler-139f highlights how much we still have to learn about the universe. It shows that even massive planets can hide in plain sight, depending on how they move in space. It also proves that with new tools and careful observation, we’re still capable of uncovering surprises among the stars.
As more powerful telescopes come online, including the James Webb Space Telescope and future missions from NASA and the European Space Agency, astronomers expect to find many more hidden worlds—perhaps even ones more like our own.
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