First habitable Earth like planet outside Solar System discovered

Zeenews.com ^ | April 24, 2007

[Constantine XIII]

“orbits a red dwarf”

I can see how that’d make it easier to find, but wow, how unlikely is it that something the right size and composition would also be in the star’s itsy bitsy habitable zone.

Just wow.

[Centurion2000]

I thought it would have to have a “van allen belt” to magnetically shield it from solar winds

A red dwarf's solar wind is pretty pathetic compared to the sun's

[Sam Cree]

Tides are something with which I have a fair familiarity. I seem to remember that there is a way that moons can be detected on faraway planets like this one, though it’s not mentioned in the article.

[mtg]

Habitable or not... could we just send all the liberals there?

[spunkets]

You’re right about the angular momentum. THe planet’s round though. So I’d expect the order of magnitude for that kind of a correction to be smaller by less than 2. Earth’s is ~0.3% at the equator.

[Constantine XIII]

There could be a good basis for these things. We roughly know what mass the star is since we know it’s luminosity and its distance. In turn, we can tell what the planet’s mass is by the motion of Gleise around their mutual centers of gravity. The orbital period is simply the time it takes for the star to make a single complete “wobble.”

This takes a bit of computation since the wobble we want to measure has to be sifted out from the larger effects of the larger Neptune class planet, but it can be done without too much hassle. Since we know the distance from the star, the star’s energy output, and the planet’s mass, we can say whether or not the world lies in the “habitable zone” wherein liquid water can exist in an equilibrium environment.

The presence of water is suspected on account of current models of the growth and evolution of planetary systems. We won’t know for sure until one of the proposed next-generation spectrometers is launched, but that seems more likely now that we have a definite target, and one that’s pretty close by to boot!

[NRA2BFree]

I volunteer to be among the first people to move there.....

That is, of course, providing there aren't any illegals there. LOL!

[Dixie Yooper]

I suggest we immediately send Al Gore on a space shuttle to investigate.

A space shuttle would leave too big of a carbon footprint. Better if we send him in a one man Mercury capsule.

[Constantine XIII]

Note to everyone. Gravitational force scales with radius as well as mass.

F = G(m1)(m2)/R^2

The force experience there by someone on the new world with mass M is

F1 = G(M)(5m(Earth))/(1.5R(earth))^2

The force experience here on earth is

F2 = G(M)(m(Earth))/(R(earth))^2

The ratio of these two forces is:

F1/F2 = 5/(1.5)^2 = 2.22..

So a 150 lb man here would weigh about 333 lb there. It’s a big difference, it would certainly be inconvenient for us, but it wouldn’t be lethal for a wide variety of earthborn species.

[Constantine XIII]

LOL, typos

[RockinRight]

Also, a planet so close to it’s sun would be tidally locked, i.e. the same part of the planet would always face it, much like the same side of the moon always faces Earth (this is true for most moons of every planet in the solar system) therefore making one side of the planet super-hot and the other ice cold.

[BigCinBigD]

Space ping!

[leadhead]

So a 150 lb man here would weigh about 333 lb there. It’s a big difference, it would certainly be inconvenient for us, but it wouldn’t be lethal for a wide variety of earthborn species.

So we have to round up potential (almost prenatal) NFL offensive lineman to send there?

[Arthalion]

Maybe, maybe not. Mercury isn’t tidally locked, and it’s a lot closer to the Sun than this planet is claimed to be. The planet isn’t likely to be a pleasant place though. With liquid water on the surface and such close proximity to the host star, there’s a strong chance that the planet will have tidal action in the oceans driven by the star itself. The Earth does experience tidal effects in the seas due to our own Sun, but they are largely invisible due to the much stronger tidal pull of our moon. Since the tidal pull of our own sun is 46% the strength of the tidal pull of our moon, one can only imagine the tidal pull a star would exert on the liquid surface of a planetary body 14 times closer.

[muir_redwoods]

It’s true that X-rays and tidal locking would be a huge problem for life on a rocky planet but aquatic life might survive with water to provide some protection from the radiation and also to serve to spread the heat around.

[spikeytx86]

I will take your word for it LOL!

[MeanWestTexan]

For what it’s worth, 120 miles is 20.4 light years.

Assuming current technolgy, a massive effort to build a nuclear-pulse engine and space craft(probably could be done in 10-15 years time, if we REALLY got after it) -— say by a benevolent dictator of USA that was really into space.

I bet a voyage would take 30 years one-way, our relativistic time, (5 years to accellerate, 5 to decellerate, 20 years or so at 3/4 speed of light).

Let’s go visit and find out.

[MeanWestTexan]

I’m thinking women would really need bed rest during the last trimester.

A newborn baby! A mere 32lbs!

[Names Ash Housewares]

Hmmmmm

Red Sun? Greater gravity? Might have to be kinda strong huh to get around?

hmmmmm

[bert]

.....models predict that the planet should be either rocky – like our Earth – or covered with oceans,”...

Fifty fifty chance . The man could recall that earth has both