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Among these exoplanets, HD 20794d, is most likely to be a rocky world in the habitable zone of its moms and dad star, the G-dwarf HD 20794.
This image reveals the habitable zone around HD 20794 (green )and the trajectory of the 3 worlds in the system. Image credit: Gabriel Pérez Díaz/ SMM/ IAC.
“HD 20794, around which HD 20794d orbits, is not a normal star,”stated UNIGE astronomer Xavier Dumusque.
“Its luminosity and distance makes it a perfect prospect for future telescopes whose objective will be to observe the environments of exoplanets straight.”
HD 20794 is an intense G6V star situated 6.04 parsecs (19.7 light-years) away in the constellation of Eridanus.
Understood as LHS 19 or e Eri, the star hosts at least 3 huge exoplanets: HD 20794b, c, and d.
They have orbital durations of 18.3, 89.7, and 647.6 days, together with masses of 2.2, 3, and 5.8 Earth masses, respectively.
“The interest in the super-Earth world HD 20794d depends on its position in the habitable zone of its star, the zone that delimits the location where liquid water can exist, among the conditions essential for the advancement of life as we understand it,” Dr. Dumusque and associates stated.
“Instead of following a reasonably circular orbit, like the Earth or Mars, HD 20794d follows an elliptical trajectory with big modifications in the range to its star throughout its transformation.”
“The world therefore oscillates in between the inner edge of its star habitable zone (0.75 AU) and beyond it (2 AU) along its orbit.”
“If there is water on HD 20794d, it would pass from the state of ice to the liquid state, favorable to the look of life, throughout the world’s transformation around the star.”
The astronomers kept an eye on the HD 20794 system with the Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanets and Stable Spectroscopic Observations (ESPRESSO) instrument, which is set up at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Paranal, Chile.
They signed up with ESPRESSO information with the information from the High Accuracy Radial speed Planet Searcher (HARPS) instrument, which is set up at the 3.6-m telescope in La Silla, Chile, consisting of archival information and brand-new measurements from a current program.
“The HD 20794 system is a high-priority target for future climatic characterization with direct imaging centers,” the scientists stated.
Their paper was released in the journal Astronomy & & Astrophysics
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N. Nari et al2025. Reviewing the multi-planetary system of the neighboring star HD 20794. Verification of a low-mass world in the habitable zone of a close-by G-dwarf. A&A 693, A297; doi: 10.1051/ 0004-6361/2024 51769
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