[1][7] The discovery of the exoplanet–along with Kepler-62e–was announced in April 2013 by NASA as part of the Kepler space telescope data release.

[1] The exoplanet was found by using the transit method, in which the dimming effect that a planet causes as it crosses in front of its star is measured.

[8] Kepler-62f is a super-Earth, placing it within the class of exoplanets with a radius and mass bigger than Earth, but smaller than that of the ice giants Neptune and Uranus.

[1] In comparison, the Sun is 4.6 billion years old[12] and has a temperature of 5778 K.[13] The star is somewhat metal-poor, with a metallicity ([Fe/H]) of −0.37, or 42% of the solar amount.

[1] A modeling study indicates it is likely that a great majority of planets in its size range are completely covered by ocean.

[16] The planet may be the only habitable-zone candidate which would avoid desiccation by irradiation from the host star at its current location.

[18] In order for Kepler-62f to sustain an Earth-like climate (with an average temperature of around 284–290 K (11–17 °C; 52–62 °F), at least 5 bars (4.9 atm) of carbon dioxide would have to be present in the planet's atmosphere.

[19] On 13 May 2016, researchers at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) announced that they had found various scenarios that allow the exoplanet to be habitable.

K-type stars like Kepler-62 can live for approximately 20–40 billion years, 2 to 4 times longer than the estimated lifetime of the Sun.

The software pipeline that searched for periodic dip in the stellar brightness, the sign of a planetary transit of the star, initially found three planets around Kepler-62, including Kepler-62e.

Additionally the Square Kilometer Array would significantly improve radio observations over the Arecibo Observatory and Green Bank Telescope.