A New Habitable Planet Orbits the Sun Near Earth
A team of international researchers at Oxford University has published new findings expanding on the discovery of a new habitable planet that orbits the sun near Earth. The exoplanet, named HD 20794 d, was originally discovered two years ago by Dr. Michael Cretignier of Oxford University.
The researchers found that the exoplanet orbits a “habitable zone” of a nearby star akin to our sun, which it uniquely orbits elliptically rather than circularly. This means that the exoplanet is close enough to its star to maintain liquid water on its surface, which is essential for sustaining life.
To test the theory, the international team recorded two decades’ worth of data to analyze. Dr. Cretignier said, “We worked on data analysis for years, gradually analyzing and eliminating all possible sources of contamination.” He continued, “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.