The most Earth like planet yet discovered: Gliese 581g

Astronomers discovered an Earth sized exoplanet that is orbiting in the habitable zone of its brown dwarf star.
Gliese 581g is located relatively close, some 20 lightyears from Earth, within our galaxy.

If confirmed, it would be the most Earth like planet yet discovered. The fact that it's so close to us would suggest there are a lot of other, similar planets around.

A team of planet hunters has announced the discovery of Gliese 581g, an Earth-sized planet orbiting a nearby star at a distance that places it squarely in the middle of the star's "habitable zone," where liquid water could exist on the planet's surface.

Its mass indicates that it is probably a rocky planet with a definite surface and that it has enough gravity to hold on to an atmosphere, according to Prof Vogt. Gliese 581g is located 20 light years away from Earth in the constellation Libra. The planet is tidally locked to the star, meaning that one side is always facing the star and basking in perpetual daylight, while the side facing away from the star is in perpetual darkness.

The researchers estimate that the average surface temperature of the planet is between -24 and 10 degrees Fahrenheit (-31 to -12 degrees Celsius). Actual temperatures would range from blazing hot on the side facing the star to freezing cold on the dark side. The surface gravity would be about the same or slightly higher than Earth's, so that a person could easily walk upright on the planet, Prof Vogt said.

Source

A slightly more elaborate article here: news.sciencemag.org...
Discoveries like this, always wonderful news.

Washington Post just picked up on the story too. They are saying it is the first habitable planet outside our solar system. This is good news. Maybe one day we can send a probe there.

www.washingtonpost.com...

I was going to post this, yahoo pick it up to. Only 20 light years away.

If Earth can simply exist as a life bearing planet+the enormous size of the universe= logic dictates that life should exist elsewhere.

news.yahoo.com...

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Did they discover it, or were they given its location?

Originally posted by rajaten
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edit on 29-9-2010 by rajaten because: cos

Actually this appears to be the original thread....I will post in the other one just for you though.

Originally posted by rajaten
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edit on 29-9-2010 by rajaten because: cos

Don't be a THREAD COP

This one was first anyway.

YOU ARE LAME

I really do have a sense of optimism at last about the whole ET/disclosure issue. There genuinely seems to be a little but of momentum developing right now. For example, this week alone, we have this quite incredible news about the first earth-like planet, a UN ambassador to ET being appointed, and the Vatican's astronomer stating that he would baptise an alien.

The sense of ridicule which would previously have surrounded such stories has diminished - there's a much more scientific angle instead of the previous 'little green men' mocking tone. Previous government concerns about a mass public panic have so far proved to be completely unfounded. In fact, most people probably skip the scientific articles and head straight to the entertainment gossip colum.

I wonder if Obama has been influential in this new strategy. And quite honestly, I cannot wait to hear what comes next? Would it be unrealistic to speculate that right now, hundreds of SETI radio telescopes are pointed precisely at this new eart-like planet trying to detect intelligent communication? Now THAT would be an amazing follow-up to this story! I'll be following this one enthusiastically!

John

I beleive that this discovery is all part of disclosure, wether they just found
the planet or they are just telling us about it,

I'ts Pretty COOL either way.

I beleive they always know things long before they tell the public, I do think
that there is still a large part of the public that could not handle the reality
of life elsewhere in our universe,

I always had the gut feeling that we are NOT alone in the cosmos.

I hope that these dicoveries will come more and more frequently.

Peace

reply to post by FutureThinker


That's ridicules. You can't say every time we find something new it's because the government let us know that little bit more....There is no secret knowledge thats kept from us. Every new astronomical discovery is just as new to the public as it is to the government.

To think otherwise is paranoia