[url=http://uk.news.yahoo.com/first-habitable-planet-discovered.html]Source[/url]
[quote]A planet 20 light years away is the first outside our solar system to be declared ‘habitable’ by scientists.
The rocky ‘exoplanet’ Gliese 581d meets key requirements for sustaining Earth-like life, including rainfall and possibly even watery oceans.
The planet orbits a red-dwarf star similarly called Gliese 581, on its outer fringes called the ‘Goldilocks zone’, where the temperature is not so hot that water boils away, nor so cold that water is perpetually frozen.
But even though it may be technically habitable, the Gliese 581d would not make a comfortable dwelling for humans.
Gravity is twice what is on Earth, doubling the weight of anyone standing on the surface, and the atmosphere is dense with carbon dioxide.
With a mass of at least 5.6 times that of Earth, Gliese 581d is classified as a ‘super-Earth’.
The discovery caught scientists by surprise because the planet was previously ruled out as a habitable country.
But a new computer model with the capacity to simulate extraterrestrial climates has confirmed that Gliese 581d really could harbour life, showing the prior assumption to be wrong.
"This discovery is important because it's the first time climate modellers have proved that the planet is potentially habitable, and all observers agree that the exoplanet exists,” said Dr Robin Wordsworth, a member of the French team from the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace in Paris.
"If you look at the history of the search for habitable planets, there's been at least two instances so far when scientists have announced that a habitable world has been discovered, only to have the claim contradicted later, either by climate experts or by other observers.”
On average, the light that Gliese 581d receives from its star has about 30 per cent of the intensity of sunlight on Earth.
While that temperature seems too cold to support liquid water, the atmosphere’s high production of greenhouse gases significantly heats the planet.
It may also be "tidally locked", meaning that one side of it always faces the sun, which would give it permanent dayside and nightside.
More than 500 planets orbiting other stars have been recorded since 1995, detected mostly by a tiny wobble in stellar light.
Exoplanets are named after their star and listed alphabetically, in order of discovery.
Until now, the big interest in Gliese 581's roster of planets focused on Gliese 581g.
It swept the headlines last year as ‘Zarmina's World’, after its observers announced it had roughly the same mass as Earth's and was also close to the ‘Goldilocks zone’.
But that discovery has since been discounted by many, with some experts suspecting the Gliese 581g may not even exist.[/quote]
[img]http://astroprofspage.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/gliese581planets.jpg[/img]
Called it.
Haven't we found plenty of these habitable planets already?
[quote]Gravity is twice what is on Earth, doubling the weight of anyone standing on the surface[/quote]
No thanks.
And now we take what's ours.
[IMG]http://www.orionsarm.com/im_store/backstory_4.jpg[/IMG]
I wonder if anything already lives there? Even just bacteria would be overwhelmingly awesome.
Only 20 lightyears? That's pretty fucking close.
*edit*
Okay, maybe not too close. But when comparing to other "earth-like" planets, this is really close.
Hell, you can reach it within a span of a human time, it wouldn't take hundreds of years.
This may be among the greatest news in human history.
wormhole travel pls kthx
[QUOTE=Fort83;29890990]too bad we can't live there, too much gas and crazy gravity[/QUOTE]Double gravity isn't too bad, and carbon dioxide can be filtered out. It's certainly not a place i'd like to live for a long time, but it's survivable. That being said, they haven't mentioned temperature range yet.
It's 13 billion miles away.
It can be done, within out lifetime even. Just as long as you have a fuck load of fuel.
Lie
Didn't we discover a [b]very[/b] similar planet not too long ago? Which was also orbiting around a red dwarf?
It's just a lie to make americans happy
[QUOTE=Lufttygger306;29891143]It's just a lie to make americans happy[/QUOTE]
k bro
[quote]Gravity is twice what is on Earth, doubling the weight of anyone standing on the surface[/quote]
Fat aliens!
[QUOTE=Binladen34;29891093]It can be done, within out lifetime even. Just as long as you have a fuck load of fuel.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, and [I]ludicrous speed.[/I]
[QUOTE=Lufttygger306;29891101]Lie[/QUOTE]
Shut up
Any way that's pretty cool, hopefully this gets attention and space programs get more money
Curious inquiry: I wonder what kind of aliens would live on such a planet.
[QUOTE=Canuhearme?;29891230]Curious inquiry: I wonder what kind of aliens would live on such a planet.[/QUOTE]
Dwarfs
I'd be happy if a planet doubled my weight.
[QUOTE=Paravin;29891264]I'd be happy if a planet doubled my weight.[/QUOTE]
You'd generate your own bloody gravityfield Paravin and start orbiting Earth, you'd become a second moon.
[quote]20 light years away[/quote]
Well there's your problem.
[QUOTE=Lufttygger306;29891143]It's just a lie to make americans happy[/QUOTE]
What else do the voices tell you?
[QUOTE=Lufttygger306;29891143]It's just a lie to make americans happy[/QUOTE]
wat
[QUOTE=callumshell;29891362]Well there's your problem.[/QUOTE]
That is very close. The galaxy is about 20 billion light years across or so.
[QUOTE=Intoxicated Spy;29891464]That is very close. The galaxy is about 20 billion light years across or so.[/QUOTE]
Actually just 100,000 light-years :science:
The really awful thing is if they spent years upon years to get there only to find out it was uninhabitable and had to fly back.
Apollo 10 had a cruise speed of ~40.000 km/h, and if I did my math right it'd take 539.984 years to get to.
[QUOTE=Intoxicated Spy;29891464]That is very close. The galaxy is about 20 billion light years across or so.[/QUOTE]
Doesn't matter, we still can't get there.
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