New Habitable Exoplanet Found by Turkish-Led Astronomy Team

🌍 Turkish-Led Team Discovers Four New Exoplanets — One Could Support Life

A team of international astronomers, led by Turkish researcher Selçuk Yalcinkaya, has discovered four new exoplanets 🌌 — and one of them may lie within its star's habitable zone, where conditions could allow for liquid water 💧.

The discovery, made about 90 light-years from Earth, marks an exciting step forward in the search for potentially life-supporting worlds beyond our Solar System 🌍.

Yalcinkaya, a PhD candidate at Ankara University, worked with scientists from across Europe, including Belgium's University of Liège, and published the findings in Astronomy & Astrophysics — one of the leading journals in the field.

Using data from the TESS Space Telescope and several observatories around the world 🔭, the team identified the four planets orbiting small, cool stars known as M dwarfs. Among them, TOI-5799c stands out — it's located in its star's "habitable zone," where temperatures may allow water to exist as a liquid.

"While we still don't know the exact composition of its atmosphere," Yalcinkaya said, "this planet could be a candidate for further study with telescopes like James Webb." 🌠

Scientists note that this doesn't guarantee life — but it's a promising place to look.

"Even the possibility of finding bio-signatures out there reminds us how vast and full of potential our universe really is." ✨