In a finding published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, a “super-Earth” planet was found outside of our solar system could have conditions suitable for life, according to experts at the University of Oxford.
Researchers revealed that the planet, named HD 20794 d, has a mass six times greater than Earth’s and orbits within the “habitable zone” of a star similar to the sun.
Source: Getty Images
Potential for sustaining water
Located 20 light-years away, scientists believed that HD 20794 d could be at an optimal distance from its star to sustain water on its surface.
Dr Michael Cretignier, a postdoctoral research assistant at the university’s physics department, stated, “Excitingly, its proximity with us means there is hope for future space missions to obtain an image of it.”
However, the planet’s elliptical orbit, unlike Earth’s circular one, raised uncertainty about its ability to host life.
Discovery and confirmation
HD 20794 d was first identified by Dr Cretignier in 2022 after detecting a possible signal while analysing archived data from the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher spectrograph at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.
An international team of researchers then analysed two decades of observations to confirm the planet’s discovery.
“For me, it was naturally a huge joy when we could confirm the planet’s existence,” Dr Cretignier said. “It was also a relief, since the original signal was at the edge of the spectrograph’s detection limit, so it was hard to be completely convinced at that time if the signal was real or not.”
Future research and significance
Dr Cretignier added that HD 20794 d “could play a pivotal role in future missions” aiming to “search for biosignatures indicating potential life” on distant planets.
“I’m now very enthusiastic to hear what other scientists can tell us about this newly discovered planet, particularly since it is among the closest Earth-analogues we know about and given its peculiar orbit,” he said.
