Scientist just found a planet that just could be the next "Earth"
By abednego7
@abednego7 (1060)
Philippines
April 28, 2007 11:09am CST
The astronomy world is buzzing with excitement after a distant Earth-like planet that may be home to life forms far more advanced than humans was discovered. The planet orbits a red dwarf. The new world is 20.5 light years away - so far it would take astronauts almost five billion years to reach it in the fastest spaceship available now.
link: http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1262484,00.html?f=rss
Another articles said that Astronomers have found the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System to date, a world which could have water running on its surface. The planet orbits the faint star Gliese 581, which is 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra. Scientists made the discovery using the Eso 3.6m Telescope in Chile. They say the benign temperatures on the planet mean any water there could exist in liquid form, and this raises the chances it could also harbour life.
link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6589157.stm
How it looks like? They describe it as the first exoplanet (a planet orbiting a star other than our own Sun) that is anything like our Earth. This new planet - known for the time being as Gliese 581c - is a midget in comparison, being about 12,000 miles across (Earth is a little under 8,000 pole-to-pole). It has a mass five times that of Earth, probably made of the same sort of rock as makes up our world and with enough gravity to hold a substantial atmosphere.
Astrobiologists - scientists who study the possibility of alien life - refer to a climate known as the Goldilocks Zone, where it is not so cold that water freezes and not so hot that it boils, but where it can lie on the planet's surface as a liquid.
link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=450467&in_page_id=1965
Could life exists there? Consider this article:
We have estimated that the mean temperature of this ’super-Earth’ lies between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius, and water would thus be liquid,” explained Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory, lead author of the scientific paper reporting the result.However, given that the host star is smaller and colder than the Sun - and thus less luminous - the planet nevertheless lies in the “habitable zone”, the region around a star where water could be liquid.
Commenting on the discovery, Alison Boyle, the curator of astronomy at London’s Science Museum, said: “Of all the planets we’ve found around other stars, this is the one that looks as though it might have the right ingredients for life.
link:http://spacefellowship.com/News/?p=2159
We still have a long way to go to verify if its indeed can be another "Earth". Just hope that human stop raping our own world. I think its more easy to maintain what we have that destruct it and look for another one which is 20.5 million light years away.
3 responses
@abednego7 (1060)
• Philippines
28 Apr 07
Man its almost 5 BILLION years using the current fastest spaceship that human have. If we really would invest to find it. I think scientist would have to find a way to reach it not using spaceship but study something like gateway or portal that could make someone travel from here to another side of the universe. You can say its too ambitious but I think guess its as ambitious as making new spaceship that could reach there where the astronaut could live until the ship landed there.
But still I take my stand that instead of using our time and huge amount of money in that, why not use it to rejuvinate our own world. I thinks this is the best we can do and I can practically say its not ambitious only reliable option we have. Upon making this world back again to it original state, then we can proceed for further exploration.
What the use of finding a new planet, if our own home is just about to die.
@shakeroo (3986)
• Malaysia
28 Apr 07
This is a very interesting article. The prospect of having another planet similar to Earth with actual beings that live there is something that is mind boggling and yet very interesting. May be it will take five million years now with our current technology but who knows what the future has in store for us. We used to take ships to go to a distance land and took us months to reach there and now we only take a few hours to do so. Nothing is really impossible.
1 person likes this
@tater03 (1765)
• United States
28 Apr 07
I would agree that we need to protect our own planet first and explore more some of the things we already have here like the oceans. But that being said I do think that this is a very interesting find and would like to know if there is another planet like ours with human life forms on it.
1 person likes this