Class "M" Planet Found Near Earth!

skip · Sep 29, 2010

Yes, it seems at last they might have found a class "M" planet relatively close to Earth. Class "M" is a fictional classification from Star Trek that indicates a world that humans might be able to inhabit with similar atmosphere, gravity and water. It's in the "Goldilocks" zone of the star Gliese 581, meaning it's the right distance from the star to support life.

And it's only 20 light years away! So scientists have a new paradigm: that earth-like planets are probably common and life on other planets is more likely than ever!

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US astronomers said Wednesday they have discovered an Earth-sized planet that they think might be habitable, orbiting a nearby star, and believe there could be many more planets like it in space.
The planet, found by astronomers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, is orbiting in the middle of the "habitable zone" of the red dwarf star Gliese 581, which means it could have water on its surface.
Liquid water and an atmosphere are necessary for a planet to possibly sustain life, even it it might not be a great place to live, the scientists said.
The scientists determined that the planet, which they have called Gliese 581g, has a mass three to four times that of Earth and an orbital period of just under 37 days.
Its mass indicates that it is probably a rocky planet and has enough gravity to hold on to an atmosphere, according to Steven Vogt, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and one of the leaders of the team that discovered the planet.
If Gliese 581g has a rocky composition similar to Earth's, its diameter would be about 1.2 to 1.4 times that of the Earth, the researchers said.
The surface gravity would be about the same or slightly higher than Earth's, so that a person could easily walk upright on the planet, Vogt said.
Gliese 581g was discovered by scientists working on the Lick-Carnegie Exoplanet Survey, during 11 years of observing the red dwarf star Gliese 581, which is only 20 light years from Earth.
For astronomers, eleven years of observation is considered a short time and 20 light years, which is roughly 117.5 trillion miles, rather close. The sun is around eight and a half light minutes from Earth.
"The fact that we were able to detect this planet so quickly and so nearby tells us that planets like this must be really common," said Vogt.
The planet is tidally locked to its star, meaning that one side is always facing the star and basking in perpetual daylight, and the other is in perpetual darkness because it faces away from the star.
With surface temperatures decreasing the further one goes toward the dark side of the planet and increasing as one goes into the light side, the most habitable part of the new planet would be the line between darkness and light, which is known as the "terminator".
The researchers estimate that the average surface temperature of the planet would be between -24 and 10 degrees Fahrenheit (-31 to -12 degrees Celsius).
But actual temperatures would range from "blazing hot on the side facing the star to freezing cold on the dark side," they said.
The findings, which will be published in the Astrophysical Journal and posted online at arXiv.org, "offer a very compelling case for a potentially habitable planet," said Vogt.
"Any emerging life forms on the new planet would have a wide range of stable climates to choose from and to evolve around, depending on their longitude," Vogt said.
In their report, the scientists in fact announce the discovery of two new planets around Gliese 581, bringing the total number of known planets around this star to six.
That is the most yet discovered in a planetary system other than Earth's solar system.
Like planet's in Earth's solar system, the planets around Gliese 581 have nearly circular orbits.
Two previously detected planets around Gliese lie at the edges of the habitable zone, one on the hot side and one on the cold side of the star, and are probably not habitable.
The newly discovered planet g, however, lies right in the middle of the habitable zone.
"We had planets on both sides of the habitable zone -- one too hot and one too cold -- and now we have one in the middle that's just right," Vogt said, recalling the porridge that Goldilocks found in the children's story "The Three Bears."
Click to expand...

Source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100929/sc_afp/usastronomyplanet_20100929210707

machinist · Sep 29, 2010

no humans = no problems arty:

skip · Sep 29, 2010

Ah but who is to say the aliens are any better?

I can name a lot of sci-fi that says they wouldn't be (if technologically advanced).

Why not send some politicians there on a "fact-finding" mission (just tell them it's a junket!). With any luck the aliens will be more than happy to "serve humans" that day.

SpacemanSpiff · Sep 29, 2010

damn...20 light years..my tank only holds enough fuel for 19

Vanilla Gorilla · Sep 29, 2010

Now we just have to solve that whole travelling at the speed of light thingy and we are there

boguskyle · Sep 29, 2010

this post reminded me of the game Spore.

i think foreign relations with other alien races (if they exist) would boil down to ourselves and how we deal with the situation. because if they're more primitive than us, primitive being defined by measurements of evolution and consciousness, then it's our responsibility to not be the cowboys to the indians. if they are more advanced than us, they will know much more solutions and answers than us, so we mustn't bite more than we can chew and act stupid.

machinist · Sep 29, 2010

i hope there are some cool plants and animals

Justin_Hale · Sep 29, 2010

I have read that we already have a way of getting there, we just lack being able to generate enough power yet.

Folding space /warp drive.

related articles: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/364496.stm

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/090506-tw-warp-drive.html

Sam_Stoned · Sep 30, 2010

If they are more advanced than us, there is a good chance they'll think humanity is evil.

Dancing til Dawn · Sep 30, 2010

Im not sure I believe it, maybe its a ploy so people carry on believing its ok to ruin our own planet because we have another back up one!

Chapter13 · Sep 30, 2010

*grabs bong* lets go see what's growing there!

Moving_cloud · Sep 30, 2010

Sam_Stoned said:

If they are more advanced than us, there is a good chance they'll think humanity is evil.
Click to expand...

Only if we taste unhealthily bad

'More advanced' could also mean they do not interfere with humanity's school lessons - not even by putting us on a scale of values.

And if we ever communicate, I imagine there is much to learn from each other.

Sam_Stoned · Sep 30, 2010

Maybe they wont even reconize our intelligence. Termites build skyscrapers too...

Asmodean · Sep 30, 2010

Seems like the only thing that makes it seem life supporting is the right distance to it's sun. So it's probably uninhabitable like most planets.

PB_Smith · Sep 30, 2010

This:
The planet is tidally locked to its star, meaning that one side is always facing the star and basking in perpetual daylight, and the other is in perpetual darkness because it faces away from the star.
Would suggest that the planet most likely does not have life on it or an atmosphere, if we are using Earth as the model for comparison.
Two important factors that make life on Earth possible are the rotation of the planet relative to the internal rotation of it's molten core. That produces the Earth's magnetic field which in turn deflects the solar wind and prevents the atmosphere from literally being blown out into space. If we lost the magnetic field around Earth, it is estimated that there would be no life within weeks due to radiation and no atmosphere left within 100 years or less.
So a spinning planet is also a factor in the whole balance, at least for a planet to support life in the same manner as Earth.

Still interesting and intriguing.

Wuji · Sep 30, 2010

Pack yer bags.

Asmodean · Sep 30, 2010

There's no more new frontier...

hotwater · Sep 30, 2010

Richard C Hoagland was discussing this very issue last night on coast to coast am and while years ago he may have been a competent aerospace engineer for NASA; some of his more recent ideas about scattered human relics throughout our solar system and pyramids on mars are more worthy of someone who should be placed in a five point restraint

Hotwater

skip · Sep 30, 2010

Asmodean said:

Seems like the only thing that makes it seem life supporting is the right distance to it's sun. So it's probably uninhabitable like most planets.
Click to expand...

Not only that. It's also has the right mass for gravity to hold an atmosphere. That is very important too.

I think the dilemma of non-rotation to be an interesting one. Indeed it seems most planets that have an atmosphere do rotate. I can't imagine how an atmosphere would act if the planet were not rotating and had a narrow band of livable climate at its terminator.

With extreme cold on one side of the planet and extreme hot on the other the interface and exchange of gases across the terminator doesn't seem to appear in any computer models I can remember.

Look at Mercury which also doesn't rotate. It has no atmosphere (it's not in the Goldilocks zone either), but I can't imagine it with an atmosphere due to the extreme differences in temperature.

The funny thing is, it's the gases in the atmosphere that tend to moderate and equalize the temperatures around a planet. So if this other planet has an atmosphere, in theory it could keep the entire planet's temperature more even. Certainly the predicted temps on the planet's terminator are within the human habitation range, if a bit cold. So if there is an atmosphere it could equalize the hot and cold extremes into a wider range of habitable environments.

In any case, even if this planet turns out to not be habitable it has raised the chances of finding habitable or even populated planets into the very likely category it seems.

GeorgeJetStoned · Sep 30, 2010

I'm not buyin it. We can't make light speed even with the shuttle running on crack. Since we have wasted so many of our resources on earthbound greed and maladjusted social experimentation, we have totally neglected our space program, likely to be our only hope. We're doomed people. Our only hope is that such a discovery would inspire the greedy to reach for the stars.

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