Astronomers have discovered a habitable planet 20 light years away
Orbiting a nearby red dwarf star called Gliese 581 are 6 planets. One of them is a rocky ball, bigger than Earth, in the "habitable zone" where water is liquid and temperatures are human-friendly. It's possible we could live there.
Unlike Earth, this planet called Gliese 581g, is "tidally locked" to its star. That means one side of the planet always faces the sun, and the other faces darkness. Temperatures on the two sides would be dramatically different, with the livable area in the "terminator" between day and night. Living on Gliese 581g would put you in an eternal twilight, which doesn't sound bad at all. Temperatures in the terminator area might be between -24 and 10 degrees Fahrenheit (-31 to -12 degrees Celsius), which is the average temperature of the planet's surface. So things would be a bit chilly, but if you could always visit the perma-sun on dayside if you needed a dose of red dwarf radiation.
According to AFP:
The planet, found by astronomers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, is orbiting in the middle of the "habitable zone" of the red dwarf star Gliese 581, which means it could have water on its surface.
Liquid water and an atmosphere are necessary for a planet to possibly sustain life, even it it might not be a great place to live, the scientists said.
The scientists determined that the planet, which they have called Gliese 581g, has a mass three to four times that of Earth and an orbital period of just under 37 days.
Its mass indicates that it is probably a rocky planet and has enough gravity to hold on to an atmosphere, according to Steven Vogt, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and one of the leaders of the team that discovered the planet.
The researchers say the most important aspect of this discovery is that it means Earthlike worlds are probably pretty common, given that we found one that's practically in our own stellar backyard.
via AFP [PDF of scientific paper from Astrophysical Journal via Steven Vogt's website]
Image by Lynette Cook
Send an email to Annalee Newitz, the author of this post, at annalee@io9.com.
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Your version of Internet Explorer is not supported. Please upgrade to the most recent version in order to view comments.So, their red dwarf sun.Does that mean super powers for us, or super powers for them when they get here to enslave us?
This has really been an exciting couple of weeks for science and certainly should help put it back on the funding agenda for the US and UK and maybe will spurr on the Western world to go back into space.
After all, China, India, Japan and Korea all have Space programme's that look like they may take over ours in a few decades. Reply
Meanwhile, back on Gliese 581g's Star Command headquarters, Rodanl, the trusty and long serving sidekick to Memsphi, the Galactic Watch Lord, fell to his knees gasping for breath from his exertions in getting past the Royal Guards without clearance. He had fallen to his knees in front of the Royal Star Lord, protector of the Gliessendon Empire, and whose cape just above his second nose he could smell the faint wisp of starch."Well? What's the meaning of this?" glared the Star Lord down at poor Rodanl."Have your guild forgotten again the code of conduct and protocol when seeking the audience of the Star Command? Up on your reuoss and explain yourself now!"
Gulping desperately and suddenly dry mouthed, Rodanl glanced furtively around the feet of the Star Commander, not daring to look up.
"S-s-s-sir... I have a m-m-message f-f-f-from the W-w-w-watch L-l-l-lord s-s-s-sir," he stammered. He paused and sucked in some desperately needed magnesium through his second nose he had now moved away from the Star Commander's red velvety cape.
"Well? Get on with it!"
"T-t-t-the W-w-w-watch L-l-l-lord, sir, he, he s-s-s-says a p-p-p-pulse eye h-h-h-has f-f-f-found u-u-u-us s-s-s-sir! H-h-h-he s-s-says, its those, those..." and he gasped yet again this time with both noses utilized, bordering on being extremely rude.
"Well? Those what? Is it the Dkeuans? They wouldn't dare risk being spotted themselves would they? Come on, get a hold of yourself. Those what?"
And with that final breath, Rodanl yelled out the cursed names of the race long thought dead and most feared in their previous incarnations.
"The Earthliiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnn...!!!! Ayeeeee....." And Rodanl promptly fell faint off his reuoss, his third ear luckily cushioning the sudden fall of his rather large head.
The Star Commander swung around, his third reuoss gripping tightly on to his second chin. I knew those fucking assholes would find us again, he thought to himself. This time, they will be wiped from their measly stone planet before they found their old weapons that the older Gliessendon empire had buried on the dark side of their watery moon...
To Be Continued...
Annalee, can we have a forum for chain storying? Reply
So, here's a question:How do they determine it's tidally locked to the star from over 20 light years away? What observation is there to differentiate between one that is and one that isn't? Reply
I'm rather ashamed that nobody in the comments section has compared this planet to Ryloth yet. Reply
oh i'm sure all those smart scientists can figure out how to make a planet spin, then everything would be gravy. Reply
Maybe this is the planet that is home to the extraterrestrials that are going to be revealed to the world soon?? Reply
We need to be sending probes to this planet right now, because it's going to take like 50+ years just to get more direct observation on it... Reply
Well, now that you've found it, I guess it's about time I revealed the truth.This planet is my homeworld.
It is called BRAAK. It is named for me, Braak!, it's more important and handsomest inhabitant.
I had to abandon it many centuries ago, but with your help, people of earth, I will be able to regain it. What you will all need to do is divert all funding from everything to building me a spaceship that can take me back to this planet.
It will be difficult, and time-consuming, and expensive, and we will all have to make sacrifices. But it is the only way. Reply
I'm probably a bit older than the average clicker here at io9 - and being stuck in 'The Village' limits my exposure to a lot of things - but I actually remember the beginnings of the space program. I've always thought that if we, as a species, didn't find a way off this 'dust ball in space', we'd eventually terminate ourselves.But then, I also thought that our modern leaders 'learned' from the historical European leaders that when you place the base of power so far away from the settlers of 'this new land' it's difficult to use your power to control -- which is why I gave up on the space program. If England could make such a fuss about the Falkland Islands, what would our leaders do if we made it off this planet and then suddenly turn around and said, "Sorry, guys, but we have clean air, clean water, and unspoiled land... and we decided to setup some new 'rules' so we don't frak-up this new world the way you did the old one."
This is the first one. Give it time, kids. There was a time when it was believed we'd never track the human genome. Now we're on the dawn of new genetics. There was a time when you needed a room the size of a manufacturing company to house a computer; now more individuals have 1000x that power in their smart phone.
Technologically, there is nothing to stop the creature known as 'man'; sociologically, can we 'grow up' quickly enough to control this knowledge?
Maybe, just maybe, before the rest of you reach my age, or your children reach your age, we as a species might be the ones who finally get out of this 'Village' and discover that it's a really big universe out there. And with that action, maybe we will finally discover that - like all the 'gods' we have created over the history of mankind - we are all 'unique, yet the same'. Reply
Dresan promoted this comment
It's locked? Wouldn't it be TOO FUCKING HOT or TOO FUCKING COLD?You would have to live in the ring of twilight. We should call the planet Twilight.
Or is the sun just so weak that its not TOO FUCKING HOT or TOO FUCKING COLD? Reply
I think a romantic comedy set on this planet would be awesome. She's from the sunny side and likes to par-tay. He's from the dark side and absorbs nutrients by licking moss from stones and sees using radar receptors and making loud clicking sounds. They meet and then die from Red Dwarf radiation half way through act two. ReplyClintonD promoted this comment
After decades of pointing out how impossibly unique Earth is, it turns out we find another Earth right next to Earth, cosmically speaking.Maybe not the best place for a spa, but this close, this thing will be a science bonanza; except we somehow drastically increase traveling speeds in the foreseeable future. Reply
I think the bigger concern here is if there are any organisms living on that planet. Because as we all know any organism from a red star solar system invariably evolves totally unnecessary adaptations that give it superpowers when exposed to yellow light. Then again I did learn all my biology from DC comics. Reply
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Astronomers Have Discovered A Habitable Planet Twenty Light Years Away - io9
via io9.com
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