In a finding that if confirmed could stand as a landmark in history, astronomers have reported discovering the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System to date: a world that may have liquid oceans and thus life.
The new planet's star system is a mere 20.5 light years away, making Gliese 581 one of the 100 closest stars to Earth. It's so dim, you can't see it without a telescope, but it's somewhere in the constellation Libra, which is low in the southeastern sky during the midevening in the Northern Hemisphere.
The new planet seems just right - or at least that's what scientists think.
"This could be very important," said NASA astrobiology expert Chris McKay, who was not part of the discovery team. "It doesn't mean there is life, but it means it's an Earth-like planet in terms of potential habitability."
"Liquid water is critical to life as we know it," co-author Xavier Delfosse of Grenoble University in France, said in a statement. "Because of its temperature and relative proximity, this planet will most probably be a very important target of the future space missions dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life. On the treasure map of the Universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X."
And while astronomers are not yet able to look for signs of biology on the planet, the discovery is a milestone in planet detection and the search for extraterrestrial life, one with the potential to profoundly change our outlook on the universe.
Artist conception of what the planet may look like.
Do I Know You wrote:20.5 light years... 20.5 years is enough time for a civilization to have evolved that we just can't see, right?
Director Guy is right, that is distance. Traveling at the speed of light, it would take almost 40 years to get there, and back. I have read somewhere that they beleive that this planet "c" is a billion years older than Earth, so yeah, in those terms, a civilization could have evolved, and who knows, maybe they are trying to determine if the 3rd planet from the our sun has life.
If it walks like socialist, quacks like socialist, smells like a socialist, .... it's a socialist. Hope, and change we can believe in.
Im still questioning the whole time of a light year thing, but regardless...Getting there and back (to this planet) would be crazy, you'd have to devote your entire life to it...
A light year is the distance that light can travel in the vacuum of space in one Earth year, which is equal to 5.88 trillion miles. If we could travel at the speed of light to the moon, we would be there in about 2 seconds. To visit the nearest star, Alpha Centauri which is 25.8 trillion miles away, or 4.3 light years away, it would take 4.3 years to get there at the speed of light.
If it walks like socialist, quacks like socialist, smells like a socialist, .... it's a socialist. Hope, and change we can believe in.
Thats right, so lets say hypothetically they blew their planet up in a nuclear war(or whatever they have there, if there is anything there) 10 years ago today, we wouldn't be able to the explosion or the fact that the planet was gone for another 10 and a half years.
Last edited by Rusty888 on April 26th, 2007, 5:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
i'm rocking the suburbs, just like quiet riot did...
rct2wizard360 wrote:Old news? We've known about this for awhile.
Now they start talking about it.
Not really. Astronomers have so far discovered over 200 other planets with in our galaxy, but they all have been like the gas giants in our solar system, and not one of them have fallen into "the safe zone" of its parent star like this one has. They have found a planet the size of Jupiter orbiting a star in the Pegasus constellation that has both water, and an atmosphere, but since it orbits close to its sun, which is like our own, the atmosphere is boiling away.
Sometime next week, they are going to try to maneuver a Canadian space telescope into position and see if they can get a snapshot of the planet moving across the star.
If it walks like socialist, quacks like socialist, smells like a socialist, .... it's a socialist. Hope, and change we can believe in.
LAFFfan4lyfe wrote:I saw this on the news and thought it was funny. There's a planet wayyy out there that can count as a planet, but not Pluto...Pluto can't be one...
Umm, pluto has more characteristics of a comet/other orbiting body than a planet...this planet orbits just like us in a different solar system, therefore it is a planet...i dont see what youre saying...
