HD 20794 d completes its orbit just shy of two Earth years, placing it well within reach of conditions that might harbor life.

UK researchers have confirmed the existence of a “super Earth” located 20 light-years away that could reveal the existence of extraterrestrial beings.

Well, we could be closer to discovering whether there really is alien life out there after researchers discovered a new 'super-Earth' which is six times bigger than our planet and may well inhabit extraterrestrials.

Thirty years after the discovery of the first exoplanet, astronomers have detected more than 7,000 of them in our galaxy. But there are still billions more to be discovered. At the same time, exoplanetologists have begun to take an interest in their characteristics,

Scientists have discovered a so-called “super-Earth” planet, potentially capable of supporting life, orbiting a sun -like star just 20 light-years away.

But according to an international team of researchers, including some from the University of Geneva, in a study published Tuesday in Astronomy & Astrophysics believe the super-Earth, dubbed HD 20794 d, could offer new insights into what makes a planet capable of supporting life.

Found by Dr Michael Cretignier of the University of Oxford, the planet has a mass six times greater than Earth's and orbits in a "habitable zone" of a star similar to the sun.

An exoplanet is a planet outside our solar system that usually orbits a star in our galaxy. More than 7,000 have been found in the Milky Way since the first confirmed discovery in the 1990s, and "billions more remain to be discovered",

The discovery of a planet that is just 20 light-years away has been said to be the closest Earth analogue that scientists have ever uncovered.