Astronomers swoon over new planet find

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100929/ap_on_sc/us_sci_new_earths


WASHINGTON – Astronomers say they have for the first time spotted a planet beyond our own in what is sometimes called the Goldilocks zone for life: Not too hot, not too cold. Juuuust right.
Not too far from its star, not too close. So it could contain liquid water. The planet itself is neither too big nor too small for the proper surface, gravity and atmosphere.
It's just right. Just like Earth.
"This really is the first Goldilocks planet," said co-discoverer R. Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
The new planet sits smack in the middle of what astronomers refer to as the habitable zone, unlike any of the nearly 500 other planets astronomers have found outside our solar system. And it is in our galactic neighborhood, suggesting that plenty of Earth-like planets circle other stars.
Finding a planet that could potentially support life is a major step toward answering the timeless question: Are we alone?
Scientists have jumped the gun before on proclaiming that planets outside our solar system were habitable only to have them turn out to be not quite so conducive to life. But this one is so clearly in the right zone that five outside astronomers told The Associated Press it seems to be the real thing.
"This is the first one I'm truly excited about," said Penn State University's Jim Kasting. He said this planet is a "pretty prime candidate" for harboring life.
Life on other planets doesn't mean E.T. Even a simple single-cell bacteria or the equivalent of shower mold would shake perceptions about the uniqueness of life on Earth.
But there are still many unanswered questions about this strange planet. It is about three times the mass of Earth, slightly larger in width and much closer to its star — 14 million miles away versus 93 million. It's so close to its version of the sun that it orbits every 37 days. And it doesn't rotate much, so one side is almost always bright, the other dark.
Temperatures can be as hot as 160 degrees or as frigid as 25 degrees below zero, but in between — in the land of constant sunrise — it would be "shirt-sleeve weather," said co-discoverer Steven Vogt of the University of California at Santa Cruz.
It's unknown whether water actually exists on the planet, and what kind of atmosphere it has. But because conditions are ideal for liquid water, and because there always seems to be life on Earth where there is water, Vogt believes "that chances for life on this planet are 100 percent."
The astronomers' findings are being published in Astrophysical Journal and were announced by the National Science Foundation on Wednesday.
The planet circles a star called Gliese 581. It's about 120 trillion miles away, so it would take several generations for a spaceship to get there. It may seem like a long distance, but in the scheme of the vast universe, this planet is "like right in our face, right next door to us," Vogt said in an interview.
That close proximity and the way it was found so early in astronomers' search for habitable planets hints to scientists that planets like Earth are probably not that rare.
Vogt and Butler ran some calculations, with giant fudge factors built in, and figured that as much as one out of five to 10 stars in the universe have planets that are Earth-sized and in the habitable zone.
With an estimated 200 billion stars in the universe, that means maybe 40 billion planets that have the potential for life, Vogt said. However, Ohio State University's Scott Gaudi cautioned that is too speculative about how common these planets are.
Vogt and Butler used ground-based telescopes to track the star's precise movements over 11 years and watch for wobbles that indicate planets are circling it. The newly discovered planet is actually the sixth found circling Gliese 581. Two looked promising for habitability for a while, another turned out to be too hot and the fifth is likely too cold. This sixth one bracketed right in the sweet spot in between, Vogt said.
With the star designated "a," its sixth planet is called Gliese 581g.
"It's not a very interesting name and it's a beautiful planet," Vogt said. Unofficially, he's named it after his wife: "I call it Zarmina's World."
The star Gliese 581 is a dwarf, about one-third the strength of our sun. Because of that, it can't be seen without a telescope from Earth, although it is in the Libra constellation, Vogt said.
But if you were standing on this new planet, you could easily see our sun, Butler said.
The low-energy dwarf star will live on for billions of years, much longer than our sun, he said. And that just increases the likelihood of life developing on the planet, the discoverers said.
"It's pretty hard to stop life once you give it the right conditions," Vogt said.

Cool. "Zarmina's World" - even sounds Sci-Fi

When can I go?

pretty cool, they say it would take a few generations to get there, i wanna go!

I remember hearing about "Planet X" when I was younger. Back then Pluto was also still a planet.

Planet X has been identified as one of many trans Neptunian objects since then.


This is slightly promising, but considering it's tidally locked to the star I am less enthused.

lol there is no such thing as other planets

Someone's been kniving again

Wolfgangsta wrote:

Someone's been kniving again

bahaha!

The problem is we don't have the technology to reach these Planets

Oh really?

point for GDP

tolivendiewithLA wrote:

The problem is we don't have the technology to reach these Planets

Exactly, and the laws of physics dictate we may never ever have such technology.

Wolfgangsta wrote:

tolivendiewithLA wrote:

The problem is we don't have the technology to reach these Planets

Exactly, and the laws of physics dictate we may never ever have such technology.

If Jews can fly to the moon on yamakas, I see no reason we can't get to Neptune someday.

Unless they figured out a way to bend time/space

tolivendiewithLA wrote:

Unless they figured out a way to bend time/space

I'm sure the secret is somewhere in the yamaka. All Hebrews and Shebrews shall travel to space. Fonzie be with u.

Jews are too cheap to give their secrets

OUSOONERSOU wrote:

tolivendiewithLA wrote:

Unless they figured out a way to bend time/space

I'm sure the secret is somewhere in the yamaka. All Hebrews and Shebrews shall travel to space. Fonzie be with u.

And also with you.

tolivendiewithLA wrote:

Unless they figured out a way to bend time/space

That would be the only way, but I think this is a little too sci-fi to be reality.

Not related but interms of ability to do this, they may be able to do that, but scientists believe they can create a loop in time, a time machine so to speak, that would allow you to travel back in time, around the loop to the point at which the loop was created.

Developing that tech could very well be disastrous. I'm a little weary of particle accelerator tech and mini-black hole direction they are taking that. Don't mess with black holes.

pst. Black Holes aint shit. all you gotta do is drop a warp core in em. Right Star Trek?

tolivendiewithLA wrote:

Not related but interms of ability to do this, they may be able to do that, but scientists believe they can create a loop in time, a time machine so to speak, that would allow you to travel back in time, around the loop to the point at which the loop was created.

LA I am sure that you have great posts but I never can read them because of the big tits that are bouncing around in your sig.

GDPofDRC wrote:

Developing that tech could very well be disastrous. I'm a little weary of particle accelerator tech and mini-black hole direction they are taking that. Don't mess with black holes.

As am I, but that's not related to the time loop, that in theory is fairly safe. The particle accelerator seems like a huge risk, I talked about it with my Physics teacher a couple times, if they do accidently create a blackhole, the magnetic fields wouldn't be strong enough to contan it, ergo we all die.

Who has the flux capacitor these days?