'goldilocks' Planet May Be Just Right For Life artilce from science.box.sk

[eminus 0]

For the first time, astronomers have spotted a cosy alien planet that might be hospitable to life. The planet is not much bigger than the Earth, and it enjoys balmy temperatures of about 20° C (68° F) as well as spectacular scarlet sunsets.
"It's the smallest, lightest planet known at this time," says StĂŠphane Udry from the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland. "And it's just at the right distance from its star for liquid water to possibly exist on its surface."

Udry and colleagues discovered the planet using the European Southern Observatory's 3.6-metre telescope in Chile. They monitored a small, dim "red dwarf" star called Gliese 581, which lies 20.5 light years away, and is already known to have a Neptune-class planet.



Subtle "wobbles" of the star suggested that it has two additional planets. One is about eight times as massive as the Earth and orbits once every 84 days. The other may be only five times as massive as the Earth, making it the smallest planet ever found around a normal star.
Just right

Theory predicts that the small planet should be about 50% wider than the Earth and have a rocky surface. It orbits its dim star every 13 days, and the astronomers calculate that it has a pleasant surface temperature of about 0 to 40°C – just right for liquid water, so the planet might be habitable.

"If you take an average value for the amount of starlight heating the planet, you get something like 20° C," Udry told New Scientist. That's similar to the average temperature in New York City, US, in June.
Astronomers have discovered "super-Earths" slightly larger than this one before. However, they are either too hot or too cold for liquid water to exist. The smallest world circling Gliese 581 is a "Goldilocks" planet with the conditions just right for potential life.

Spectacular sunsets

Sunrises and sunsets on the planet must be spectacular. If you could stand on its surface, you would see its red host star looming 10 times wider in the sky than our own Sun appears.

Team member Xavier Delfosse from Grenoble University in France says he hopes that spacecraft missions will probe the world for signs of life over the next decade or two.

"On the treasure map of the universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X," says Delfosse. "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."

REF:Newscientist
https://www.newscientist.com/

[HiddenKenshin 0]

I was pretty psyched out when I heard this on the news. For the first time ever, a planet has been uncovered that is ideal for life like here on our Earth. People always want to do something "before they die". I just want the confirmation that there is sentient life in the universe, hehe.Question is, how long will it take before we can actually probe the planet for signs of life? What kind of life could it contain? How far advanced are they? Will they be benevolent or malevolent? Will it just be fishlike creatures? Ah... I can't wait >_<

[Saint_Michael 3]

Yeah I heard about it as well (couple a weeks ago), but of course it's all in theory and pretty hard to determine if it is truly a hospitable planet in our universe. Of course the first thing to catch my eye was the fact this planet is a lot clser to a star then our sun is to us. Yeah the red dwarf is cooler then our own sun, but that also means that star has a shortly life span. Which means that it could go could super nova or a black hole and the planet would begin it's destruction, not only that they couldn't give a reliable read out on the surface temperature so who knows what it's seasons are like. Then of course the 13 day rotation as well, I don't think a person could handle the fact they would be a few thousand years old by the time they turn 18 .But thats all trivial because this planet is 20.5 light years away or roughly 200 trillion miles, so getting there would be impossible as it would take maybe 50-100 generations to get to that planet based on our current space flight technology. Hopefully as times goes by we can find more inforamtion on this planet and see what it tells us.

[HiddenKenshin 0]

Yeah I heard about it as well (couple a weeks ago), but of course it's all in theory and pretty hard to determine if it is truly a hospitable planet in our universe. Of course the first thing to catch my eye was the fact this planet is a lot clser to a star then our sun is to us. Yeah the red dwarf is cooler then our own sun, but that also means that star has a shortly life span. Which means that it could go could super nova or a black hole and the planet would begin it's destruction, not only that they couldn't give a reliable read out on the surface temperature so who knows what it's seasons are like. Then of course the 13 day rotation as well, I don't think a person could handle the fact they would be a few thousand years old by the time they turn 18 .
But thats all trivial because this planet is 20.5 light years away or roughly 200 trillion miles, so getting there would be impossible as it would take maybe 50-100 generations to get to that planet based on our current space flight technology. Hopefully as times goes by we can find more inforamtion on this planet and see what it tells us.

Still, it's a red dwarf, but if I'm not mistaken, by the time the star completely dies out will still take thousands of years, as well as the fact that if the star dies out before it starts disintegrating, the planet will be robbed of all life looooooong before it turns into a supernova.

I guess I'm too excited about this to think pessimistic ^^

[unimatrix 0]

I've not followed up on this in a few years, but NASA was scheduled to be launching a very long base line interferamter past the moon in the next five to eight years that should be able to view Earth sized planets. I think the initial date was 2012, but that was about 5 years when I last heard anything about the project. I've not been following up on space news like I used to these days. Just not enough time in the universe...as ironic as that sounds.

[mvs.en 0]

YeahI heard about the planet too, it's a shame it's so far away because... Really, it would be awesome.I'd like to learn more about it, shame it's only just been discovered.I'll probably be reading up on it though as anything new develops, just because I'm interested in this sort of thing.Ah well, I guess there's nothing really that I can do but wait.These things need some time to develop further.

[Moon Child 0]

Wow, who knew? Well, even if it is 'right' with the temperature and water elements, Earth's wildlife and plants are another story. That, and just because a planet doesn't seem right for our standards of living doesn't mean that there aren't other type of life form on it. We just assume that we're the only ones that can survive in another planet.

[toby 0]

If there was life, would it be carbon-based like we are? Cos ammonia can be made from basic elements, and carbon is another.

[HiddenKenshin 0]

If there was life, would it be carbon-based like we are? Cos ammonia can be made from basic elements, and carbon is another.

For as much as I know, doesn't life require a single, most important factor:

"Water"?

 

Personally, I wouldn't even want something like us humans, heh.