According to Sky News, scientists from the University of Oxford believe that this planet might have conditions that could support life.
The planet, HD 20794, is six times more massive than Earth. It orbits a star similar to the Sun, within the “habitable zone.”
The planet is 20 light-years away, and scientists think it is positioned at the right distance from its star to potentially support liquid water on its surface.
Dr. Michael Cretignier, a postdoctoral research assistant at the university’s physics department, said, “Excitingly, its proximity with us means there is hope for future space missions to obtain an image of it.”
He first discovered HD 20794 three years ago after detecting a possible signal while studying old data collected by the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher spectrograph at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.
Later, an international team of researchers analyzed two decades of data to confirm the discovery of the planet.
Cretignier expressed, “For me, it was naturally a huge joy when we could confirm the planet’s existence. 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.”
As HD 20794 follows an elliptical oval-shaped orbit instead of a circular one like Earth’s, it is uncertain whether the planet can maintain the conditions necessary to support life.
Cretignier expressed his excitement to hear insights from other scientists about the newly discovered planet.
