New Earth-like planet Discovered!

Using a technique known as "gravitational microlensing" astronomers have found a new planet said to be the most Earth-like planet discovered so far. Apparently, initial measurements show that it is approximately 5.5 times bigger than the planet we (well, most of us) are on now. The new planet is located about 28,000 lightyears away orbiting a Red Dwarf. Though it is Earth-like in its surface, temperatures are as low as -220 degrees Celcius.

The planet is estimated to be about 5.5 times as massive as Earth and thought to be rocky. It orbits a red dwarf star about 28,000 light-years away. Red dwarfs are about one-fifth as massive as the Sun and up to 50 times fainter. But they are among the most common stars in the universe.

So the finding suggests rocky worlds may be common.

"The team has discovered the most Earth-like planet yet,” said Michael Turner, assistant director for the mathematical and physical sciences directorate at the National Science Foundation, which supported the work.

Original Source

Another link to the story if you're intersted:
CNN

well like to say that if they now found this it will be soon they will release info about a earth like planet with possible life.

I believe in it that they allready did but the shock would be to great and they have to first gradualy introduce the facts

if they said we found a earth like planet with possible life it would have been a to great a shock.

so now they said an earth like planet
second stage earth like planet with possible life
third is earth like planet with life .

each stage readying the people to the fact of possible life
and then they can release the major and biggest discovery of them all.

if found it would be revolutionary and the hyperdrive currently under investigation could get full funding full scale prototypes ext wil be made
and way to reach it will be investigated more .

By "Earth Like planet" they mean it's rocky not gasous which has been the majority of exo-planet finds. We do not have the capabilities to detect atmospheres yet, but we soon will like within the decade.

we are waiting for nasa to launch its terrestial planet finder currently being build. and the james web telescope the replacement of the hubble.

I have made a fault in the tag in the tag search system should be

ogle-2005-blg-390lb what the planet is currently called.

I watched about this on the news earlier,

The planet is called ogle-2005-blg-390lb, Does this mean it was found last year (2005 in the name) Hence, it being kept from us for a length of time? I'm only guessing the 2005 in the name means year of founding (I don't personally know too much about planets etc)

They (on the news report) implied thay have chance of finding life on this planet, But at -220 degrees celcius, Would any sort of life be able to exist there?

Also, excuse my 20 questions lol, May i ask what is gravitational microlensing?

It's only Earth-like in its size, they don't know anything else about it...in fact, depending on how this gravitational method works, they may have only found a planet of 5.5 times Earth's mass, it may be a gasseous planet or a planet formed entirely of cheese...they have no clue.

I read about this, appreantly the planet does have a thin atmosphere, but it's about -230 degrees or something really cold like that.

Originally posted by crookedblue
I watched about this on the news earlier,

The planet is called ogle-2005-blg-390lb, Does this mean it was found last year (2005 in the name) Hence, it being kept from us for a length of time? I'm only guessing the 2005 in the name means year of founding (I don't personally know too much about planets etc)

They (on the news report) implied thay have chance of finding life on this planet, But at -220 degrees celcius, Would any sort of life be able to exist there?

Also, excuse my 20 questions lol, May i ask what is gravitational microlensing?

it does to be exactly it was found july 2005
but they had to make sure it was true and that all
data was correct they sended out the location to other
telescopes and scientist they confirmt it and now it has been released.

Ahh i understand now, thanks MarkLuitzen

Originally posted by crookedblue
They (on the news report) implied thay have chance of finding life on this planet, But at -220 degrees celcius, Would any sort of life be able to exist there?

To answer your question, yes. Life has been found in the most extreme environments on Earth where no one would even think life could possibly exist. There's no reason why this could not hold true on other planets. Sure, if life exists there it could just end up being some microscopic bacteria or protist-type things, but it would still be significant due to the fact that it was found on another planet.

Originally posted by crookedblue
Also, excuse my 20 questions lol, May i ask what is gravitational microlensing?

Well, it's basically noticing changes in the amount of light given off by a distant star. I've also read/heard that noticing a star "wobble" is also an indicator that it has orbiting planets and the wobble is generated from the gravitational pull of its orbiting planets. However, an external source can probably explain it better than I can.

If a planet deflects light precisely in our direction, we would see its star brighten as the deflected light is concentrated toward us. This brightening can last from 15 minutes to a month, depending on the mass of the planet and how far it is from its star.

Source: SPACE.com

The source article has more information than the brief quote taken from it. For further information, here's a link to the Wikipedia article.

the most fascinating thing about the article is that they can now find planets similar to earth, not just gasgiants which dont really have the means to contain life. and it even said that earth-like planets could be the more common planet type. which greatly increases the chance of extraterrestial life.

though i dont really think this planet contains life, even if it does, it would have to be very different to ours. because red dwarfs emit radiation which is dangerous for life. atleast for the life we know.

Stop reading into the article which is mostly crap propaganda.

They have no evidence that the planet is not gasseous, or not icy//rocky.

They have no evidence of what it is made of, if it has an atmosphere or anything.

And it is still 5.5 times the mass of earth!