Astronomers have found some pretty wild exoplanets. Some are balls of lava the temperature of hell, one is partially made of diamond, and another may rain molten iron. However, not all exoplanets are this extreme.

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", said Tech Explorist.

It is believed that the planet, named HD 20794 d, is at just the right distance from its star to sustain water on its surface, but because this distance changes over the course of its elliptical rather than circular orbit it is too early to say whether it could host life.

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,

Earth" planet that may have conditions suitable for life, according to the University of Oxford. The exoplanet—a planet outside our solar system—has a mass six times greater than that of Earth and orbits in the "habitable zone" of a nearby star similar to our sun,

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

Astronomers who identified HD 20794 d say its proximity to its host star and orbital pattern suggest it could hold water.

Located less than 20 light years away, HD 20794d could potentially be one of the most Earth-like planets found so far, despite its extreme climatic variability.

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.

The study of exoplanets has come a long way since the first detection of a planet orbiting a star other than the Sun in 1995. This groundbreaking discovery, achieved through the radial velocity (RV) technique,