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First habitable Earth like planet outside Solar System discovered
Zeenews.com ^ | April 24, 2007

Posted on 04/24/2007 1:41:01 PM PDT by Sopater

Munich, April 24: An international team of astronomers from Switzerland, France and Portugal have discovered the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System to date.

The planet has a radius only 50 percent larger than Earth and is very likely to contain liquid water on its surface.

The research team used the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO’s) 3.6-m telescope to discover the super-Earth, which has a mass about five times that of the Earth and orbits a red dwarf already known to harbour a Neptune-mass planet.

Astronomers believe there is a strong possibility in the presence of a third planet with a mass about eight times that of the Earth in the system.

However, unlike our Earth, this planet takes only 13 days to complete one orbit round its star. It is also 14 times closer to its star than the Earth is from the Sun.

However, since its host star, the red dwarf Gliese 581, is smaller and colder than the Sun – and thus less luminous – the planet lies in the habitable zone, the region around a star where water could be liquid!

“We have estimated that the mean temperature of this super-Earth lies between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius, and water would thus be liquid,” said Stéphane Udry from the Geneva Observatory, Switzerland and lead-author of the paper in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

“Moreover, its radius should be only 1.5 times the Earth’s radius, and models predict that the planet should be either rocky – like our Earth – or covered with oceans,” he said.

“Liquid water is critical to life as we know it and 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 extra-terrestrial life. On the treasure map of the Universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X,” added Xavier Delfosse, a member of the team from Grenoble University, France.

According to the research team, the host star, Gliese 581, is among the 100 closest stars to us, located only 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra (“the Scales”).

The star has a mass only one third that of the Sun. Such red dwarfs are at least 50 times intrinsically fainter than the Sun and are the most common stars in our Galaxy. Among the 100 closest stars to the Sun, 80 belong to this class.

“Red dwarfs are ideal targets for the search for such planets because they emit less light, and the habitable zone is thus much closer to them than it is around the Sun. Any planets that lie in this zone are more easily detected with the radial-velocity method, the most successful in detecting exoplanets,” said Xavier Bonfils, a co-worker from Lisbon University.

Bureau Report


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: exoplanet; exoplanets; gliese581; libra; planet; science; space; xplanet; xplanets
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To: Spktyr
Or the Alcubierre (spelling?) one. However, the Orion Project is grounded in accepted physics. The technology is already there--general relatively was already taken into account when they designed it.

The thing is, unless it was launched from Antarctica or the poles, the radiation it would put into the air was estimated to kill a lot of people indiscriminately around the world.

121 posted on 04/25/2007 1:09:13 AM PDT by Jedi Master Pikachu ( What is your take on Acts 15:20 (abstaining from blood) about eating meat? Could you freepmail?)
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To: Jedi Master Pikachu

relativity....


122 posted on 04/25/2007 1:10:01 AM PDT by Jedi Master Pikachu ( What is your take on Acts 15:20 (abstaining from blood) about eating meat? Could you freepmail?)
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To: Jedi Master Pikachu

Well, you’d have to build and launch the thing from orbit, I think.


123 posted on 04/25/2007 1:17:29 AM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: B-Chan

What makes us think that the Terra Nova will be uninhabited?


124 posted on 04/25/2007 4:07:25 AM PDT by Samurai_Jack (ride out and confront the evil!)
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To: Sopater

Sounds like a real paradise....

Their definition of *habitable* is waaaay different than mine.


125 posted on 04/25/2007 5:00:38 AM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: Jedi Master Pikachu
What’s the formula for mass/radius to gravitation?

I don't know, I was just going by 1.5 times per the article............

126 posted on 04/25/2007 5:03:07 AM PDT by Red Badger (If it's consensus, it's not science. If it's science, there's no need for consensus......)
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To: spunkets

The toll on the human body has got to be more than simply weighing more. A 100 lb person weighing 220 lb could still walk around, but it would seem that all the weight bearing joints would be under far more stress and would deteriorate much more quickly.


127 posted on 04/25/2007 5:08:25 AM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: Sopater
"However, unlike our Earth, this planet takes only 13 days to complete one orbit round its star."

Must get pretty windy...

128 posted on 04/25/2007 5:08:35 AM PDT by Hatteras (I'm a sweetheart, genius, a reckless jerk. Lord have mercy, I'm a piece of work...)
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To: Hatteras

Start launching all liberals today. We must get them there.


129 posted on 04/25/2007 5:10:20 AM PDT by bmwcyle ( Freep Fox they drop the ball on GOE)
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To: lafroste
models predict that the planet should be either rocky – like our Earth – or covered with oceans,” he said.

The last time I looked, the Earth was rocky AND covered with oceans. Why do they think it must be one or the other, but not both?

They need a model to predict this?

They're just covering all the bases. That way, no matter what they find, they can say they were right.

130 posted on 04/25/2007 5:12:42 AM PDT by ukie55
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To: Sopater

"Prepare to jump."

131 posted on 04/25/2007 5:16:41 AM PDT by freedomson (Tagline comment removed by moderator)
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To: Sopater

Because our planet depends on oil like a crack whore and with the likelyhood this planet never had any carbon based lifeform to create oil it dictakes that we will never make an effort to go there.
Its all about oil, take that figure out of any current event equation and the sum will change.
And the equation of having to have oil is what is castrating us from going to space.


132 posted on 04/25/2007 5:25:58 AM PDT by Eye of Unk
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To: spunkets; Godebert
Does the mass of the planet directly corelate to the atmosheric pressure?

So what about Godebert's question? What effect would this have on atmospheric pressure, assuming an Earth-like atmosphere since it's supposed to be habitable.

133 posted on 04/25/2007 5:32:32 AM PDT by ukie55
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To: spunkets
"I don’t know about “habitable”, though. I’d weigh 1000 lbs! " Then you must weight 450lbs here. LOL! A 200lb person would weight 444lbs on that planet, so the planet's not habitable. The story's poorly written, but the weight factor is 5/1.52=2.2.

Not by us, but it is the closest thing we've found, so far.


134 posted on 04/25/2007 5:38:33 AM PDT by jmcenanly (Cowards take hostages. We do not.)
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To: HeadOn

5X the mass Earth,but only 2X the gravity....


135 posted on 04/25/2007 5:42:33 AM PDT by nuke rocketeer
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To: Jedi Master Pikachu
It is Gm/r squared, that is a Constant G times the mass over the sqare of the radius. This world is 8 times the mass of the Earth and 1.5 times the diameter, so I show a gravity of 3.6 times that of Earth.

Astronauts launching on the Shuttle take about 3 times the force of gravity, fighter pilots going through sharp turns take 9.

136 posted on 04/25/2007 5:44:26 AM PDT by jmcenanly (Cowards take hostages. We do not.)
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To: Dixie Yooper

No - we need to send him with a documentary team
Lauria David, Michael Moore, Bil Moyers, Dan Rather
and some Senators with proconsular power such as
Kerry, Kennedy, and Schumer


137 posted on 04/25/2007 5:47:12 AM PDT by Waverunner
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To: MeanWestTexan
Are those accurate numbers? Do we really have any technology which will continuously accelerate for 5 years at a given rate, with a mass low enough to let it peak at .75 SOL?

If so, I'd be interested in what it would cost to send a probe. I know ... it would take generations to get the data, but so what? I say we should have a look around if we can.

138 posted on 04/25/2007 5:52:24 AM PDT by tcostell (MOLON LABE)
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To: cripplecreek
Calling it “habitable” is an awfully optimistic claim.

Indeed. Liquid water doesn't do you much good if that water is also full of noxious chemicals and the atmosphere has high concentrations of carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide.
139 posted on 04/25/2007 6:34:15 AM PDT by JamesP81 (Eph 6:12)
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To: Centurion2000
probably about 2 - 2.5G on the surface but if it's got liquid water it's got life.

That's an enormous assumption with no empirical data in our solar system (that we've found yet) to back it up.
140 posted on 04/25/2007 6:42:58 AM PDT by JamesP81 (Eph 6:12)
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