An exoplanet is any planet beyond our solar system, and finding them is not an easy task. But still, astronomers have managed to locate more than 6,000 exoplanets out of the billions believed to exist. Scientists become even more excited when they find these exoplanets in the 'habitable zone', also known as "Goldilocks zones". According to NASA, it is the distance from a star at which liquid water could exist on orbiting planets' surfaces, where conditions might be just right for life - not too hot and not too cool.
A team of researchers has detected signs of a massive gas giant orbiting right in the habitable zone of a star far hotter, brighter, and larger than our Sun. If confirmed, the discovery would mark the hottest host star ever known to harbour a planet in its "Goldilocks zone".
The star, known as HD 156295, sits about 140 light-years away from Earth. It belongs to a class called A-type stars, which burn with a brilliant bluish-white light.
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According to the details mentioned in a recent paper published in The Astrophysical Journal, the star reaches blazing surface temperatures around 7,500 degrees C (13,500 degrees F). For comparison, the surface of our Sun burns at about 5,500 degrees C.
HD 156295 shines roughly nine times brighter than the Sun and is nearly twice as massive. Dubbed HD 156295 b, the candidate world is no small rocky rock like Earth; it's a gas giant roughly six times more massive than Jupiter.
To find this exoplanet, the astronomers analysed nearly 16,500 Delta Scuti stars observed by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).
Because HD 156295 is so intensely hot, its habitable zone lies much further out than in our own solar system. The planet orbits its star at a distance of about 3.9 astronomical units (AU), nearly four times the distance between Earth and the Sun, completing one full orbit roughly every six years.
At that distance, the planet receives about 60% of the starlight that Earth gets from the Sun, keeping it in a surprisingly cosy thermal range despite its host star's extreme power.
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Could life (or aliens) exist there?
Because HD 156295 b is a massive gas giant similar to Jupiter, it doesn't have a solid surface where alien life could walk around.
But the astronomers also note that large gas giants often host large, solid moons. If this planet has moons with atmospheres, those moons could theoretically harbour liquid water and conditions suitable for life.
