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Earthlike planet discovered - Gliese 581c
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Seth Send message Joined: 20 Dec 99 Posts: 58 Credit: 1,030,265 RAC: 0 |
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). There have been some studies done showing with a decent atmosphere it could moderate the temperature also the thought of life around a red dwarf star is not as far fetched as has been in the past. At this time we can only speculate on this world as we have no way to analyze the atmosphere or get any pictures, maybe some day we will. |
ralpher Send message Joined: 21 Feb 03 Posts: 22 Credit: 34,722 RAC: 0 |
Will SETI look at Gliese 581 C? Its a newly found rocky planet that has the potential to harbor life according to the following article: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070424_hab_exoplanet.html On the space.com message boards we were discussing how to find out more about it. Everything from a probe to giant mirrors were suggested. Then someone asked if someone would read radio waves from it. (Sorry, did not notice that this thread had been started. Did a search on Gliese and this thread did not come up for me) |
ralpher Send message Joined: 21 Feb 03 Posts: 22 Credit: 34,722 RAC: 0 |
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). I did see a documentary on that where a model of a planet was mapped, and its weather pattern. In the middle of the sunny side was a perpetual hurricane, but he outer rims of the sunny side were quite normal temparatures, similar to Earth. |
Orgil Send message Joined: 3 Aug 05 Posts: 979 Credit: 103,527 RAC: 0 |
Can anybody calculate what a unit weight difference between earth and G581? From some other discussion I found 1.25 and/or 2.2 which one is true?! (100kg on earth weighs 125kg on g581) Mandtugai! |
Airbuster Send message Joined: 22 Nov 05 Posts: 115 Credit: 1,342 RAC: 0 |
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 other have said, there was a documentary on one of the Science channels which showed 2 hypothetical alien planets, one was a moon of a large gas giant and another was a planet much like this, orbiting a red dwarf star. They think now that one side will be frozen in ice, and the other side will have a gigantic hurricane, sitting in one place forever. Between these two extrmes would be a temperate belt, one eternal afternoon. It depicted, in stunning computer animation, hypothetical creatures that might live here: gigantic animals that looked like trees and feed on sunlight, the goofy dino/birdlike creatures with buck-teeth, the deadly micro-pihranna, and these cute little six-legged amphibians. I believe it was called simply "Extraterrestrial". Yes, this is definitely a place worth investigating further. |
Airbuster Send message Joined: 22 Nov 05 Posts: 115 Credit: 1,342 RAC: 0 |
You can find some clips of that show here: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/extraterrestrial/index.html |
kinhull Send message Joined: 3 Oct 03 Posts: 1029 Credit: 636,475 RAC: 0 |
Hubble doesn't have the resolving power necessary to image planets at interstellar distances no matter how long the exposure. I was thinking more along the lines of detailed spectral analysis, atmospheric 'signatures', etc (or whatever it is that astronomers and other scientists like doing). Join TeamACC Sometimes I think we are alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we are not. In either case the idea is quite staggering. |
Jason Safoutin Send message Joined: 8 Sep 05 Posts: 1386 Credit: 200,389 RAC: 0 |
Hubble doesn't have the resolving power necessary to image planets at interstellar distances no matter how long the exposure. No it doesn't, but we can give it that power. Voyager is beyond our solar system and is still going very strong. "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 |
Seth Send message Joined: 20 Dec 99 Posts: 58 Credit: 1,030,265 RAC: 0 |
Will SETI look at Gliese 581 C? They have and found nothing which is not surprising considering this star is only around 2 or so billion years old going on the development of earth life if there is anything there it`s probably just plants and simple animals at most. Also I believe the planets life friendly surface facing its sun would not be in a ideal spot for much radio signals to reach here. |
Jason Safoutin Send message Joined: 8 Sep 05 Posts: 1386 Credit: 200,389 RAC: 0 |
Will SETI look at Gliese 581 C? Interesting thing about plants. "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 |
Clyde C. Phillips, III Send message Joined: 2 Aug 00 Posts: 1851 Credit: 5,955,047 RAC: 0 |
Maybe if there were any aliens on the planet at Gliese and the gravity of that planet were greater than that of Earth those aliens would be smaller than we to compensate. Sorta like those big whales being buoyed by the sea. |
Ally Ein Send message Joined: 18 Feb 07 Posts: 49 Credit: 397 RAC: 0 |
why's it called Gilese 581? |
Airbuster Send message Joined: 22 Nov 05 Posts: 115 Credit: 1,342 RAC: 0 |
why's it called Gilese 581? hell if I know. |
Clyde C. Phillips, III Send message Joined: 2 Aug 00 Posts: 1851 Credit: 5,955,047 RAC: 0 |
Probably some guy named Gliese named a bunch of stars, etc, after himself and the one in question was the 581st Gliese star. The "c" probably means the third component of a multiple (gravitybound) star system, all of whose components are named "Gliese 581". There are plenty of multiple stars. |
Labbie Send message Joined: 19 Jun 06 Posts: 4083 Credit: 5,930,102 RAC: 0 |
Probably some guy named Gliese named a bunch of stars, etc, after himself and the one in question was the 581st Gliese star. The "c" probably means the third component of a multiple (gravitybound) star system, all of whose components are named "Gliese 581". There are plenty of multiple stars. From Wikipedia: The name Gliese 581 refers to the Star catalogue of nearby stars by Wilhelm Gliese. Other names of this star include BD-07° 4003 (BD catalogue, first known publication) and HO Librae (variable star designation). It does not have an individual name such as Sirius or Procyon. Calm Chaos Forum...Join Calm Chaos Now |
BabyMakR Send message Joined: 13 Oct 05 Posts: 5 Credit: 4,137,695 RAC: 1 |
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). how were they able to tell that it wasn't rotating? i thought it took a radar to tell if it was rotating and that couldn't have happened yet cos it takes 20.5 years for the radar to get there then 20.5 years for the signal to get back to us. it wouldn't be possible to detect rotation from gravitational studies plus for it to keep one side towards the star at all times it would need to be spinning damn fast because it orbits its star once every 13 days 8O |
Misfit Send message Joined: 21 Jun 01 Posts: 21804 Credit: 2,815,091 RAC: 0 |
[snip] plus for it to keep one side towards the star at all times it would need to be spinning damn fast because it orbits its star once every 13 days 8O That's not that fast. That would be one rotation every 13 days. Earth does it 13x faster at 1 per day. Jupiter rotates once every 10 hours. me@rescam.org |
jason_gee Send message Joined: 24 Nov 06 Posts: 7489 Credit: 91,093,184 RAC: 0 |
[snip] plus for it to keep one side towards the star at all times it would need to be spinning damn fast because it orbits its star once every 13 days 8O Hmmm, try this: Gliese 581c day / night = infinite? (is it constantly facing inwards like our moon? or does it stay facing in one direction making 1 day = 1 year? (13 earth days) ) Gliese 581c year = 13 earth days ? sounds quick but need some maths 581c is about ( they reckon) 1/14th distance from its star, than Earth is from the Sun: Earth year = 365.25 days, so 1/14th 365.25 days is ~26.1 days, therefore Gliese 581c ( at 13 day orbit /year) is only orbiting its star around twice as fast as we orbit the Sun. [Edit: this might be because the star is smaller than the Sun, or else it should orbit much faster , closer in like that... trying the spinning weight on a string thing .... yep should be much more than twice as fast if the star exerted same gravity as our Sun, must be a lot smaller ] "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. |
Misfit Send message Joined: 21 Jun 01 Posts: 21804 Credit: 2,815,091 RAC: 0 |
Heh, I was addressing the speed of planetary rotation, not orbit. :) me@rescam.org |
jason_gee Send message Joined: 24 Nov 06 Posts: 7489 Credit: 91,093,184 RAC: 0 |
Heh, I was addressing the speed of planetary rotation, not orbit. :) I've been looking to see where I read it may not be rotating, can't find it now :( [EDIT oh here 'tis in the wiki article climate section ( tidally locked ), how they'd figure that I don't know] "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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