Earthlike planet discovered - Gliese 581c

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Profile Jason Safoutin
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Message 552612 - Posted: 25 Apr 2007, 0:50:18 UTC
Last modified: 25 Apr 2007, 0:55:17 UTC

First earthlike planet outside solar system discovered

A planet 1.5 times greater in radius and with about 5 times earth mass orbiting the red dwarf Gliese 581 has been discovered.

Gliese 581c is the planet's current name, it has an estimated surface temperature between 0 and 40°C. Scientists claim the planet is likely to have an atmosphere and liquid water.

The newly discovered planet is 20.5 light-years away from the Earth.

See link above for who story
"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible". Hebrews 11.3

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Message 553160 - Posted: 25 Apr 2007, 4:30:01 UTC

What an awesome discovery!
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Message 553290 - Posted: 25 Apr 2007, 7:08:10 UTC - in response to Message 553160.  

Hello,

Yes it's a very a 'astronishing' discovery.
I have read that Arecibo have yet tried to scan this area without result.But was perhaps without enough accuracy?

About the event the discovery was made by an European Team at the ESO(La Silla).

It will be very excited to knew more about this exoplanet!

Have good day

Emmdeb
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Message 553304 - Posted: 25 Apr 2007, 7:50:54 UTC - in response to Message 552612.  

First earthlike planet outside solar system discovered

A planet 1.5 times greater in radius and with about 5 times earth mass orbiting the red dwarf Gliese 581 has been discovered.

Gliese 581c is the planet's current name, it has an estimated surface temperature between 0 and 40°C. Scientists claim the planet is likely to have an atmosphere and liquid water.

The newly discovered planet is 20.5 light-years away from the Earth.

See link above for who story


Temperatures between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius sounds good. I expect to hear of more smaller planets being reported in the coming years. It's inevitable. Inevitable if you're a person that believes that a system will be made up of planets if it's not a multiple star system. Like me.

thnx

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Message 553331 - Posted: 25 Apr 2007, 9:56:44 UTC

How long has it been like our planet, I wonder?

Maybe we should point a dish at it for a week!
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss
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Message 553332 - Posted: 25 Apr 2007, 10:00:29 UTC

I'll be creating a website dedicated to selling real estate there soon. Stay tuned.

:-)
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I did NOT authorize this belly writing!

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Message 553333 - Posted: 25 Apr 2007, 10:09:58 UTC

lol
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss
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Message 553358 - Posted: 25 Apr 2007, 12:51:12 UTC - in response to Message 553333.  
Last modified: 25 Apr 2007, 13:17:08 UTC

Anyone got calculations for: (based on 20.5 light years...) ?
- Time taken for one way trip, at 10% C (average), for those on the craft.
- Time as observed from earth bound folks ( 205 years ?)
[i.e is it still the same apparent duration to the people on the craft? or less?]
"Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions.
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Message 553374 - Posted: 25 Apr 2007, 13:53:17 UTC

SKY NEWS in the UK are carring this story on the TV as one of their main stories.

Also on the web
http://news.sky.com/skynews/home

Watch the movie
http://news.sky.com/skynews/video/videoplayer/0,,30000-1262496,00.html

And another movie explaining it
http://news.sky.com/skynews/video/videoplayer/0,,30000-1262522,00.html
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Message 553400 - Posted: 25 Apr 2007, 14:42:18 UTC
Last modified: 25 Apr 2007, 14:53:43 UTC

This proves that life in universe is really common phenomenon. Considering our galaxy's immense size there are 2 identical planets found within 20au range means life supportive planets and solar systems are plentiful. But why these planets are not communicating each others is very weird question. (maybe according to galactical constitution no crime happening planets do not bother to contact crime struggler ones. ;) )
Mandtugai!
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Message 553431 - Posted: 25 Apr 2007, 16:28:57 UTC - in response to Message 553400.  
Last modified: 25 Apr 2007, 16:32:51 UTC

This proves that life in universe is really common phenomenon. Considering our galaxy's immense size there are 2 identical planets found within 20au range means life supportive planets and solar systems are plentiful. But why these planets are not communicating each others is very weird question. (maybe according to galactical constitution no crime happening planets do not bother to contact crime struggler ones. ;) )


some possibilities I can think of:
-the planet has only no or simple life
-the planet has advanced life that has a poorly funded SE?I program
-they don't wan't to speak to us, aliens are scary, (They've seen Here's Lucy)
-they advanced then died out
-we originated there, raped the planet and moved here in ancient times
- they tried contact but we aren't advanced enough to receive/interpret/understand
- a signal is there and our underfunded seti research hasn't found it yet

probably many more if I think about it
[ they comunicate via surgical procedures on cattle, and hillbillies ? ]

"Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions.
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Message 553434 - Posted: 25 Apr 2007, 16:40:18 UTC - in response to Message 553431.  
Last modified: 25 Apr 2007, 16:41:56 UTC

some possibilities I can think of:
...

Aother one:

-we're looking in the wrong direction

(from Kevin's post in technical news).

I think SETI@home should offer to ship the currently-idle data recorder from Arecibo to a southern hemisphere observatory, if a sponsor would be prepared to cover shipping/installation costs and say 3 months analysis costs (staff, servers and data bandwidth).
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Message 553470 - Posted: 25 Apr 2007, 18:18:07 UTC - in response to Message 553400.  

This proves that life in universe is really common phenomenon. Considering our galaxy's immense size there are 2 identical planets found within 20au range means life supportive planets and solar systems are plentiful. But why these planets are not communicating each others is very weird question. (maybe according to galactical constitution no crime happening planets do not bother to contact crime struggler ones. ;) )


Well, to us Human newcomers, space-exploration is extremely exciting because we haven't yet discovered many pastimes that can compete with it. But civilizations that have been around for millions of years will probably have discovered more fun and fulfilling pastimes that we can't even imagine yet.

I'll bet their multi-player online-games are REALLY good. :)

Another reason, of course, is that they're too far away, and it's unlikely that a planet so close has intelligent life.

We know that this planet could be rocky, and is the right distance from the sun, but we don't know anything else about it yet. Or maybe they are here, but following a Prime-directive of noninterference?


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Message 553471 - Posted: 25 Apr 2007, 18:20:44 UTC - in response to Message 553470.  



I'll bet their multi-player online-games are REALLY good. :)




LOL I bet they just released Quake XXVI there :P


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Message 553482 - Posted: 25 Apr 2007, 18:43:48 UTC - in response to Message 552612.  

First earthlike planet outside solar system discovered

A planet 1.5 times greater in radius and with about 5 times earth mass orbiting the red dwarf Gliese 581 has been discovered.

Gliese 581c is the planet's current name, it has an estimated surface temperature between 0 and 40°C. Scientists claim the planet is likely to have an atmosphere and liquid water.

The newly discovered planet is 20.5 light-years away from the Earth.

See link above for who story

I wonder what the likelihood of getting Hubble pointing in that direction for 1,000,000 seconds would be?

I think they used that length of time for one of the deep field shots?

20 Light Years, seems really close (compared to everything else).

I'm looking forward to future scientists finding out more about this place!!!

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Sometimes I think we are alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we are not. In either case the idea is quite staggering.
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Message 553544 - Posted: 25 Apr 2007, 21:06:47 UTC - in response to Message 553482.  
Last modified: 25 Apr 2007, 21:07:34 UTC

First earthlike planet outside solar system discovered

A planet 1.5 times greater in radius and with about 5 times earth mass orbiting the red dwarf Gliese 581 has been discovered.

Gliese 581c is the planet's current name, it has an estimated surface temperature between 0 and 40°C. Scientists claim the planet is likely to have an atmosphere and liquid water.

The newly discovered planet is 20.5 light-years away from the Earth.

See link above for who story

I wonder what the likelihood of getting Hubble pointing in that direction for 1,000,000 seconds would be?

I think they used that length of time for one of the deep field shots?

20 Light Years, seems really close (compared to everything else).

I'm looking forward to future scientists finding out more about this place!!!


Hubble doesn't have the resolving power necessary to image planets at interstellar distances no matter how long the exposure.

"Gentlemen, there are only two types of naval vessels..........Submarines, and Targets" -- U.S. Navy Submarine SONAR Instructor.
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Message 553567 - Posted: 25 Apr 2007, 21:41:04 UTC - in response to Message 553400.  
Last modified: 25 Apr 2007, 21:42:29 UTC

This proves that life in universe is really common phenomenon. Considering our galaxy's immense size there are 2 identical planets found within 20au range means life supportive planets and solar systems are plentiful. But why these planets are not communicating each others is very weird question. (maybe according to galactical constitution no crime happening planets do not bother to contact crime struggler ones. ;) )




This does not prove that life is common in the universe because we don't know if life is on this planet. We have no idea how life gets started so we cant predict how common or uncommon it will be.

It does prove that planets around the mass of earth can and will orbit in a stars habitable zone.
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Message 553578 - Posted: 25 Apr 2007, 21:53:51 UTC - in response to Message 552612.  
Last modified: 25 Apr 2007, 21:56:57 UTC

seriously - that's one of the coolest discoveries in years! I adore Earth-like exoplanets! thanks for the heads-up!





that would have worked if you hadn't stopped me
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Message 553637 - Posted: 25 Apr 2007, 23:22:06 UTC

I agree that it's a great discovery, but: The planet has a "gravity lock-in" (hope I got the words right), i.e. it's not turning around its own axis, and thus it's always showing the same side to the star (like our moon is always showing the same side to our Earth).

As a result of this, temperature on the one side is extremely hot, temperature on the other side extremely low => probably no life possible on this planet.
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Message 553739 - Posted: 26 Apr 2007, 0:39:26 UTC - in response to Message 553637.  

I agree that it's a great discovery, but: The planet has a "gravity lock-in" (hope I got the words right), i.e. it's not turning around its own axis, and thus it's always showing the same side to the star (like our moon is always showing the same side to our Earth).

As a result of this, temperature on the one side is extremely hot, temperature on the other side extremely low => probably no life possible on this planet.




interesting - then again, there's the geographical gray zone between both extremes - since the planet's alignment is constant, perhaps Earth-like life could have evolved in these middle-regions...




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