Latest news with #HD20794d
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists discover a super-Earth. Something about it is strange.
Scientists found an intriguing world in our galaxy. They confirmed the existence of a rocky planet, called a "super-Earth," that's some six times as massive as Earth. While the world HD 20794 d is larger than our planetary home, it's relatively low-mass compared to the huge and inhospitable Jupiter-like gas giants out there. Importantly, it inhabits a compelling part of its solar system, a region called the habitable or "Goldilocks" zone, where liquid water could exist on a world's surface. (Earth, for example, orbits in this special area, where it's neither too hot, nor too cold.) "For me, it was naturally a huge joy when we could confirm the planet's existence," Michael Cretignier, an exoplanet detection researcher at the University of Oxford who led the research, said in a statement. Evidence for the initial detection, made in 2022, was thin: Cretignier needed more observations to conclusively prove HD 20794 d's existence. SEE ALSO: NASA scientist viewed first Voyager images. What he saw gave him chills. But there's something unusual about this super-Earth. Planets orbit their stars in elliptical, or oval, shapes, though these ovals tend to be almost circular (but still can't literally be called circles). Yet Cretignier notes HD 20794 d has a "peculiar orbit." It's highly elliptical, which means as the planet orbits its star, it moves from the inner edge to just beyond the outer edge of the habitable zone every year. This raises questions about its habitability, or likelihood that it harbors conditions that could support life as we know it. You can see a conception of the planet's strange orbit below. The outer planet is the super-Earth HD 20794 d, and the green region in space is this solar system's habitable zone. An illustration of a habitable zone in a solar system. Credit: NASA The research was recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. The exoplanet team harnessed two decades of light observations captured by the HARPS and ESPRESSO (Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanet and Stable Spectroscopic Observations) instruments, located in the profoundly dark and dry Chilean mountains. These sensitive instruments detect minute gravitational effects an exoplanet has on its star. You can think of these effects as faint, almost imperceptible wobbles. Although HD 20794 d still remains largely mysterious, it's possible that future exoplanet missions — such as NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory — a space telescope that would look for signs of life in the atmospheres of other worlds — will be able to closely investigate this intriguing super-Earth. "Excitingly, its proximity with us (only 20 light-years) means there is hope for future space missions to obtain an image of it," Cretignier said. There are likely more than a trillion planets in our galaxy alone, and a large proportion could be super-Earths. One day, we might confirm that some are ocean worlds, like Earth. Featured Video For You NASA video shows stunning scene from extremely volcanic world Io
BBC News
29-01-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Could this large Earth-like planet be home to alien life?
Astronomers have discovered a large Earth-like planet orbiting a distant star that could be home to alien exoplanet - the name for a planet beyond our solar system - has the catchy name: HD 20794 some of its journey around its star, it lies with an area known as the "habitable zone" that means it's not close enough that it's too hot, and not too far from the star that it's too also means, just like Earth, it's much more likely to have water on its surface - a key ingredient for life. HD 20794 d has been described by experts as a super-Earth, an Earth-like planet that's much larger than our orbits a star, much like our own Sun, and is located just 20 light years away - which is quite close for objects in relatively 'close' distance means the planet and its star are much easier to it's hoped that further research will give scientists an even better idea of what life, if any, could exist on the surface. What is a system's habitable zone? The habitable zone is often referred to as the Goldilocks zone, because it's 'not too hot and not too cold', and just the right distance from its star for liquid water to exist on its where exactly the habitable zone exists around a star depends on the star itself: Its size, mass and the case of our own Sun and solar system, the habitable zone includes Earth and Mars. Could life survive on the planet? The planet itself lies in an eccentric orbit, which means its journey around its star is not perfectly a result, it travels in and out of the habitable zone as it orbits, meaning a year on the planet, lasting 647 days, will have vastly different conditions during there is water on HD 20794 d, it could change from liquid to ice during the course of a year on the surface.
The Independent
28-01-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Scientists discover ‘super-Earth' planet that could be suitable for life
Scientists have discovered a so-called 'super-Earth' planet, potentially capable of supporting life, orbiting a sun -like star just 20 light-years away. This 'super-Earth,' dubbed HD 20794 d, boasts a mass six times that of our planet and resides within the star's 'habitable zone.' The zone represents the optimal distance from a star where liquid water could exist on a planet's surface. However, HD 20794 d follows an elliptical, rather than circular, orbit, meaning its distance from its star varies. This makes it difficult to definitively determine its life-supporting potential at this stage. The initial hint of HD 20794 d's existence came in 2022 when Dr. Michael Cretignier, a postdoctoral research assistant at the University of Oxford's Department of Physics, spotted a signal while examining archived data from the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher spectrograph at Chile's La Silla Observatory. An international team of researchers went on to analyse two decades of observations to confirm the discovery. 'We worked on data analysis for years, gradually analysing and eliminating all possible sources of contamination,' Dr Cretignier said. '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. 'Excitingly, its proximity with us (only 20 light-years) means there is hope for future space missions to obtain an image of it.' Researchers hailed the planet as an 'invaluable test case' for space projects looking to detect signs of life outside our solar system. 'With its location in a habitable zone and relatively close proximity to Earth, this planet could play a pivotal role in future missions that will characterise the atmospheres of exoplanets to search for biosignatures indicating potential life,' Dr Cretignier said. 'While my job mainly consists of finding these unknown worlds, 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.' The findings have been published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
