Scientists' 'huge joy' as ‘super-Earth’ planet discovered that could sustain life

Astronomers have long been trying to find life beyond our own planet, and a new discovery might just be a promising location for extra-terrestrials to hide.

Scientists have just discovered an “super-Earth” just 20 light years away that could have the right conditions for life.

Researchers from the University of Oxford have found an exoplanet – a planet outside our own solar system – more than six times the size of Earth.

The exoplanet, named HD 20794 d, orbits in the “habitable zone” of a nearby star similar to our Sun, meaning it sits the right distance away from the star to sustain water on its surface.

However, because this distance changes over the course of its 90-day orbit, rather than having a circular, it is too early to say whether it could host life.

Dr Michael Cretignier, a postdoctoral research assistant in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford, first identified a possible signal for the exoplanet in 2022 while analysing data recorded by a spectrograph at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. 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