A new planet that could possibly replace Earth?
By Gammmae105
@Gammmae105 (72)
United States
October 8, 2009 6:34pm CST
It's called Gliese 581c. It is 1.5x the size of the Earth. It orbits around the red dwarf, Gliese 581. It has very rocky features, which could mean erosion by water. Its temperature ranges are between 32 degrees Farenheit and 102 degrees Farenheit.Even though it's 15x closer to its sun than Earth is, the temperatures remain similar to Earth's because the sun it orbits around is a red dwarf(+50x dimmer than our sun).
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It's highly possible, and extremely probable that this planet has living organisms living on it as we speak. Through scientific evidence, this planet is habitable. Humans, right now, if had to be transported to a new planet because of Earth's possible destruction, this planet would be #1 on any spaceship's list for many reasons: It is habitable enough, that water may exist there, and if it does exist, it will be in liquid form. The temperature zones are adequate for any organism's needs, because its sun is still young, and temperatures are average(based on earth temperatures.
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In this world, one year passes by as fast as 13 earth days. This planet is only one of many planets that can actually harbor life. Whether life does exist on them is another story, but they are capable of harboring life.
What do you guys think about this recent discovery of a new habitable planet?
If you had the chance, would you live on this planet for a day(or technically 51 minutes 18 seconds on that planet)?
Do you guys think that there could actually be life on this planet?
3 people like this
9 responses
@tulipstrader (1467)
• India
9 Oct 09
its a good discovery. prior earth's possible destruction, transporting 6.8 billion people will be a big problem. we do not have the technology to do that. those who land up on Gliese 581c will die soon as the day there is just 1/24th of our earth day. so we age fast and die. does it make sense to go there. if such a planet exists with possibilites of sustaining life, there must be a few more nearby. well, let the search go on.
@Gammmae105 (72)
• United States
9 Oct 09
You realize you don't age fast "physically", only mentally. You could be 660 years old on that planet, and be 24 years old in earth years, and have 24 year old features. Just because 1 year passes by in 13 days, it does not mean your physical age does so too. That's the beauty of separating physical objects and mental thoughts. That's why when we think of something, we think of it two different ways; physically and mentally. In your case, you're assuming physical objects and mental thoughts are the same; they're not. That's why you made the mistake to say that we age fast and die faster; we don't. We age faster(mentally), but we die at the same time we would on earth(physically).
@tulipstrader (1467)
• India
9 Oct 09
the aging process and the planets fast movement around its sun both are physical aspects. mentally we can remain young for long. physically not.
going by your argument, if it happens on a mental level then that will definitely manifest on the physical level much faster.
@Gammmae105 (72)
• United States
9 Oct 09
So you're saying that just because time is different in one place, it affects our physical aspects? No, you age based on your body's characteristics. You don't need a planet to tell you how fast you age. Think of people in spaceships to the Moon. During the trip, they're not on any planet, yet they are all aging at the same rate as Earth. You age the same in any place. Though SOME physical characteristics may change(weight due to gravity), most stay the same, like aging, because that depends on oxidation of your skin. Time is nothing but a mental characteristic.
Let me make it simpler; You won't age faster because of time, because you age based on the processes going on with your skin and your body. You die once your free energy has become 0, and you've reached equilibrium, you die, not once time tells you it's over.
@xfahctor (14118)
• Lancaster, New Hampshire
9 Oct 09
I think to say this planet is inhabitable or harbors life is a bit of a stretch. there are still far too many unknowns. We don't know what sort of atmosphere it has, IF it even has an atmosphere, we don't know what sort of radiation it is subject to from it's sun, we have no idea what the surface tetonics are, we don't know if it has a protective magnetic field, we don't know how stable an orbit it has, what bombardment it is subject to from objects in it's solar system.
It is amaziong we can actually detect these things now though. It started a little under a decade ago when we suspected there was a large jupiter planet detected around a star, after that, the flood gates openbed and we are finding them all over the place and discovering that solar systems are common, what we DON'T know yet is how common life or "habbitable" planets are. As of right now, we technicly can't even visualy look at them yet, we can only detect the wobble they put on their stars, their size and get infared images of them.
Then there is the fact that this thing is 20 light years away, we have absolutely no hope at all of ever getting there. It's almost tragic that even if we were able to detect life out there, we may never get a chance to encounter that life, but I supose just knowing it is there would suddenly a lot of things for us.
@Gammmae105 (72)
• United States
9 Oct 09
Actually, if you read what I posted, the radiation isn't that much because it orbits around a red dwarf, which is a dim star(50x less radiation than earth's sun). This dimness is compensated by the planet being 0.1-0.2 AU(Atmospheric units)(1 AU= distance from Earth to sun). Therefore, temperatures range from 32 F to 102F; seems pretty habitable to me.
More research is being done now on this planet and even more information is surfacing, so the unknowns will become known in the near future.
@xfahctor (14118)
• Lancaster, New Hampshire
9 Oct 09
Yes, but you are only adressing visible light radiation and infared(heat) radiation. A red dwarf is still a star and still emitts incredibly unimaginable ammounts of other types of radiation such as X-rays, gamma rays, nutrino particles and such. In addition to a solar "wind", which isn't a wind in the sense of blowing air, but refers to a "blowing" force none the less that would strip the atmosphere of a planet orbiting close enough to it and unprotected by a magnetosphere.
This is still a magnificant astronomical find though, there is just still way too much we don't know and won't know for quite a while untill we develope the technology to examine these planets in more detail.
@xfahctor (14118)
• Lancaster, New Hampshire
9 Oct 09
Oops, forgot to include this in my last comment,
It is in fact a lack of a magnetic field that prevents Mars from developing a propper atmosphere, it is unprotected from solar wind and it is this same lack of magnetic field which subjects it to dangerous gamma, x ultraviolet radiation and solar storms, wich result in even bigger bursts of this radiation.
@LovingLife139 (1504)
• United States
9 Oct 09
WOW. I've been waiting for this day my entire life. You made me one happy woman.
Did they just discover this planet? I know what I'll be researching into for the next week. :)
When people ask me if I think there is life on another planet--whether intelligent or not, I can't believe they're asking. It's just ridiculous to me to have such an egotistical mind-set to say, "No, we're the only ones." There are eight, maybe more planets in our galaxy alone. Look at the hundreds of thousands of stars in the hundreds of galaxies...of course there's life on another planet! There still isn't a valid and understandable definition of "life," so even if there isn't light-needing energy-gathering life out there, who's to say there isn't another type of life we haven't yet discovered?
If I had the chance to step on this planet, I'd pack my bags and my husband and live on it. I've never wanted anything more than to step foot on another planet and not only experience the surroundings but to experience the solitude. Like a clean slate, really. If it were possible to live on the planet for good I would do it. Have they gone into detail yet about the chemical elements this planet's atmosphere possesses? I know there has to be a certain level of oxygen for it to be habitable.
I am SO excited. Thank you for this post. 
@LovingLife139 (1504)
• United States
9 Oct 09
I have heard of the parallel universe theory. Although I can't quite understand exactly how the theory works, I understand the outline, and it's simply fascinating. You explained exactly why I think it's ignorant to assume we're "alone." To be honest, I'm not sure if it's smart to look for this other life or not, who knows how intelligent/friendly or hostile it may be, but I know it's out there just like I know I exist.
Researching this planet online, I saw it was discovered in 2007. I had no idea it's been so long! I can't believe I hadn't heard of it. Maybe they're discovering more and more about it presently so it's sparking back up again.
@vandana7 (100297)
• India
9 Oct 09
Hi Gammmae, interesting information. In fact, excellent piece of information. As to going there - no I wouldnt want to undertake any intergalactic travel. :) Within our solar system would be fine. I read somewhere Jupiter's moon, Ganemede is a possibility. :) I'd stick to the known devil. :) After all, I know there are no aliens there otherwise they would have come to Earth by this time. :) But before we do consider that - we need to know what kind of live forms can exist there. Imagine having to fight small pox all over again!
@aulius111 (330)
• Australia
9 Oct 09
I'd love to go to this new planet, imagine how the sky would be like or the habitat or the possible discoveries.
@starsailover (7829)
• Mexico
9 Oct 09
I think there could be actually life and it's possible that we can live in the near future in another planet but we have to wait until there's more information about the planet. In scientific facts it's better not to make conclusions so fast. I have seen some pictures of planet Gliese 581c and it looks amazing
@Gammmae105 (72)
• United States
11 Oct 09
Anything's possible. And yes I agree that we need more information, but don't you think these scientists have done enough research on this planet? All we need to know now, is how to get there. That's the only information we need.
@Pose123 (21635)
• Canada
9 Oct 09
Hi Gammmae, I would say that it's very likely that there is life there. I don't think that we are able to travel there yet, but all that may change quickly with new discoveries. There is another point that I'd like to make and that is that a planet doesn't have to be like Earth to have life. Remember that it may not be life as we think of it but that doesn't mean it isn't life. The thing is of course, we can't really imagine life in an other way other than the way we obverse it on Earth. Blessings.
@sinnedsejatnom (1311)
• Philippines
9 Oct 09
This is a good article. It is good to hear that their is another planet like earth in which life possibly exist. As what you said, it would be another evacuation planet for us if our planet really can't recover of all the problems today. I think, our scientists need to take deep exploration on this discovery. The idea is really positive but a possible number of research still needs to be done first. But we all know that the budget on space is already limited due to economic crisis we are experiencing now, so scientists should be able to have much and much information even with tight budget. Although their are talks of combination of other countries research departments but if the outcome is good, then it would be very beneficial for us. I'd like to follow on this one for another update. Thanks for sharing.
@themdno (402)
• United States
9 Oct 09
That's really cool. But could you imagine living there, and the sun rising and setting every 51 minutes! I think that would take some getting used to, but it would be awesome. I think this proves that there has to be life on another planet. There are so many galaxies out there, and we have several habitable planets in our galaxy alone.
I would love to live on Gliese 581c, if I could. That would really be amazing.
