Hopes Dashed for Life on Distant Planet - New planet found that may support life

Scientists earlier this year announced they had found a small, rocky planet located just far enough from its star to sustain liquid water on its surface, and thus possibly support life.

Turns out the scientists might have picked the right star for hosting a habitable world, but got the planet wrong. The world known as Gliese 581c is probably too hot to support liquid water or life, new computer models suggest, but conditions on its neighbor, Gliese 581d, might be just right.

www.space.com...

...new simulations of the climate on Gliese 581c created by Werner von Bloh of the Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and his team suggest the planet is no Earthly paradise, but rather a faraway Venus, where carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere create a runaway greenhouse effect that warms the planet well above 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 Celsius), boiling away liquid water and with it any promise of life.

I thought that they found that microbes might exist on Venus, and similar planets.

More information about the other planet:

But the same greenhouse effect that squashes prospects for life on Gliese 581c raises the same hope for another planet in the system, a world of eight Earth-masses called Gliese 581d, which was also discovered by Udry's team.

"This planet is actually outside the habitable zone," said Manfred #z, an astronomer at the University of Texas at Arlington and a member of von Bloh's team. "It appears at first sight too cold. However, based on the greenhouse effect, physical processes can occur which are heating up the planet to a temperature that allows for fluid water."

And where this is fluid water, there is the chance of life as well. The researchers speculate that "at least some primitive forms of life" might exist on Gliese 581d. There is no evidence to support that speculation, however.

[edit on 6/21/2007 by Alien42]

[edit on 6/21/2007 by Alien42]

nice find

we keep discovering more and more habitable planets. in my opinion its only a matter of time now before we make contact.. at least some sort of contact the public knows about

well i did warn evrybody in the original thread that this planet sucked and the astronomers were jazzing it up big time.

dont worry plenty more planets to come from CoRoT.

i've always wondered why these intelligent people think that water means life.obviously it does for on this planet.but that doesn't mean that other beings do.i remember watching a program bout aliens and this fella(emminent scientist.) said,"if there are no signs of water then we can be sure there is no life."

uhm,hello! a foolish statement i feel.and worrying too.lol.