Astronomers have been curious to find another civilization sharing the Milky Way galaxy with us. Hence, ever since we commenced space exploration, scientists have continued to observe the Universe with the hope that they could spot something extraordinary. After years of searching, astronomers have discovered something that has never been seen before. In a recent observation, researchers discovered an exoplanet named HD 20794 d orbiting around a star 20 light years away from the Sun.
They studied the unique exoplanet closely and concluded it may be the perfect habitable alien world.
What makes astronomers think that HD 20794 Alien Planet can sustain life just like Earth
Astronomers did not just conclude that HD 20794 d can sustain life. They carried out a series of observations and studies to arrive at this conclusion. Firstly, they analyzed the mass of the exoplanet HD 20794 d and realized that it is six times less than the mass of Earth.
The alien planet is also moving around a Sun-like star at the perfect habitable distance where liquid water can form on its terrain. Despite astronomers finding several hostile features that could make the planet uninhabitable, they remain hopeful with the few habitable features that they were able to discover.
The team behind the study celebrated their ability to find something out of the ordinary at only 20 light years away from us. Astrophysicist Michael Cretignier, working at Oxford University in the UK participated in the study. Cretignier said that he was excited with the outcome of the study.
He further revealed that the confirmation of the existence of HD 20794 d sent great joy across the scientific community. Cretignier noted that the original signal of the detection was found at the end of the spectrograph’s detection limit.
Hence, it was quite challenging for them to conclude if the signal was coming from a real planet or not. Cretignier also said that the closeness of HD 20794 to us means that future space missions could capture a detailed image of the alien planet.
How Habitable is Exoplanet HD 20794 d?
When it comes to determining the habitability of a planet, astronomers often compare the strange world to Earth. As for the case of exoplanet HD 20794 d, the researchers compared it to Earth and discovered that it orbits in the habitable zone of its host star.
Assuming the planet is too close to its hot Star, no liquid will exist on its surface as the intensity of the sun would dry them up. However, if the planet is too far away from the host star, a small amount of sunlight will reach every liquid on its surface to freeze into a hard solid.
Astronomers have proven that almost every star system in the universe has an orbital range where life could exist on any planet within that region, that is if the planet has the necessary features to host life. This region is generally referred to as habitable or Goldilocks zone.
What Astronomers Did Next After the Ground Breaking Discovery
After astronomers discovered the star HD 20794, they closely analyzed its features. These series of observations enabled them to conclude that the star is a yellowish dwarf star just like our Sun. However, unlike the Sun, HD 20794 is slightly smaller and a bit older.
This implies that it is already about to experience hydrogen fusing. However, despite its being so old, it still has the capacity to stabilize different-sized exoplanets moving around it. So, how many planets orbit around HD 20794? Astronomers discovered three exoplanets orbiting around HD 20794 in 2011. However, astronomers think that there may be more exoplanets within this region.
In 2022, Cretignier discovered a faint signal within the star’s spectrum which he thought may be produced by an alien exoplanet. Though the periodic wobble found was too faint, astronomers still decided to conduct more studies to check if it was a planet causing it.
Cretignier and his team studied the signal carefully to determine its outcome. They obtained more detailed observations about the HD 20794 using the European Southern Observatory’s ESPRESSO instrument.
These new observations enabled the team to arrive at a more satisfactory updates about the discovery. Several scientific data discovered enabled them to conclude that the exoplanet is actually real. This discovery makes HD 20794 d the fourth planet found within this region.
What You Know about Exoplanet HD 20794 d
Scientists used all these data to learn more about the exoplanet. Exoplanet HD 20794 d is not exactly like Earth. It has a minimum mass of 5.82 times that of Earth. The Alien World also has a radius of about 1.7 and 2.1 times of Earth. Unlike our planet which orbits the sun in just 365 days, it takes HD 20794 d about 648 days to orbit around its stars.
The exoplanet moves around its star following an elliptical orbit. However, only part of its orbit lies across the habitable zone of its star. This implies that some orbital part of the Star does not fall within the habitable region.
At its farthest point, the exoplanet moves to a great distance where its water would freeze. Scientists are still struggling to determine the particular radius of the exoplanet. This implies that they cannot calculate the density of the exoplanet, which would have determined its composition.
Assuming the alien world is smaller in radius, it could mean that it is a rocky planet like super-Earth. However, if it appears larger, it could mean that the planet would exist as a gaseous mini-Neptune with puffy features. Hence, future observations will be necessary to learn more about HD 20794 d and its features. Astronomers behind this study published the research in Astronomy & Astrophysics.
