'Earth-like' planet discovered http://news.aol.co.uk/earth-like-planet-discovered/article/20070425060009990006 An illustration of the planetary system around Gliese 581 - Search: New planets - Check your horoscope - Have your say An Earth-like planet that could be covered in oceans and may support life has been discovered outside the Solar System. The new world, which is 20.5 light years away, orbits a region with the right temperature to allow liquid water on its surface. Scientists believe it is only 1.5 times larger and five times more massive than Earth, making it the smallest extra-solar planet known. But the exciting discovery is that the planet inhabits the habitable zone of its parent star, Gliese 581. Also known as the "Goldilocks zone", this is the narrow orbit in which temperatures are not too hot, not too cold, but just right for surface water to exist as a liquid. The habitable zone varies according to the heat output of the star, and Gliese 581 is much smaller and colder than the Sun. So even though the planet is 14 times closer to the star than the Earth is to the Sun, it lies in a region where rivers, lakes and oceans are possible. Liquid water is one of the pre-requisites for life as we know it on Earth. The planet was found by Swiss, French and Portuguese astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's 3.6 metre telescope at La Silla in Chile. They employed a method of long-distance planet finding that looks for the "wobble" on a star caused by the gravity of a large object orbiting it. By measuring the wobble motion, shown as shifts in the star's light spectrum, astronomers can calculate a planet's orbit and mass.
How do they work out what the temperature is on a planet 20.5 light years away? Would need a bloody long thermometer!
RE: physics & mathematics nt I wander if they have this global warming lark and an hole in the Ozone layer?
It would be pretty amazing thought if.. there was life on planets like this. Other humans.... be pretty cool.
RE: It would be pretty amazing thought if.. chances of humans having developed about as likely as winning the lottery every wekk for the next 1000 years!
If every star in the sky (a star is a sun) has 9 planets (just like ours) and if from the furthest star you can see even more stars I would say the odds are good that there is something out there. But we will never know in our life time unless they get an urge to pay us a visit but why the hell they would want to do that i don’t know
maybe...... just maybe..... maybe there's a chance that you'll get a shag..... now that there is the possibly another life-sustaining planet out there....
RE: Bloody part timers Have you seen how much it costs for a return ticket from Gliese 581, bleedin' fortune and don't get me started on the quality of service offered by InterGalactic Rail, those carriages have never seen the business end of a mop!
Oh yeh so...... .... I bet they were all at Cardiff...... they were you see, you thought they were in fancy dress but 2 heads are the norm on Gliese 581.
