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  • Scientists discover a nearly Earth-sized planet

    This might be a good place to send Welsh people.

    By JENNIFER QUINN, Associated Press Writer – Tue Apr 21, 6:17 pm ET

    HATFIELD, England – In the search for Earth-like planets, astronomers zeroed in Tuesday on two places that look awfully familiar to home. One is close to the right size. The other is in the right place. European researchers said they not only found the smallest exoplanet ever, called Gliese 581 e, but realized that a neighboring planet discovered earlier, Gliese 581 d, was in the prime habitable zone for potential life.

    "The Holy Grail of current exoplanet research is the detection of a rocky, Earth-like planet in the 'habitable zone,'" said Michel Mayor, an astrophysicist at Geneva University in Switzerland.

    An American expert called the discovery of the tiny planet "extraordinary."

    Gliese 581 e is only 1.9 times the size of Earth — while previous planets found outside our solar system are closer to the size of massive Jupiter, which NASA says could swallow more than 1,000 Earths.

    Gliese 581 e sits close to the nearest star, making it too hot to support life. Still, Mayor said its discovery in a solar system 20 1/2 light years away from Earth is a "good example that we are progressing in the detection of Earth-like planets."

    Scientists also discovered that the orbit of planet Gliese 581 d, which was found in 2007, was located within the "habitable zone" — a region around a sun-like star that would allow water to be liquid on the planet's surface, Mayor said.

    He spoke at a news conference Tuesday at the University of Hertfordshire during the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science.

    Gliese 581 d is probably too large to be made only of rocky material, fellow astronomer and team member Stephane Udry said, adding it was possible the planet had a "large and deep" ocean.

    "It is the first serious 'water-world' candidate," Udry said.

    Mayor's main planet-hunting competitor, Geoff Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley, praised the find of Gliese 581 e as "the most exciting discovery" so far of exoplanets — planets outside our solar system.

    "This discovery is absolutely extraordinary," Marcy told The Associated Press by e-mail, calling the discoveries a significant step in the search for Earth-like planets.

    While Gliese 581 e is too hot for life "it shows that nature makes such small planets, probably in large numbers," Marcy commented. "Surely the galaxy contains tens of billions of planets like the small, Earth-mass one announced here."

    Nearly 350 planets have been found outside our solar system, but so far nearly every one of them was found to be extremely unlikely to harbor life.

    Most were too close or too far from their sun, making them too hot or too cold for life. Others were too big and likely to be uninhabitable gas giants like Jupiter. Those that are too small are highly difficult to detect in the first place.

    Both Gliese 581 d and Gliese 581 e are located in constellation Libra and orbit around Gliese 581.

    Like other planets circling that star — scientists have discovered four so far — Gliese 581 e was found using the European Southern Observatory's telescope in La Silla, Chile.

    The telescope has a special instrument which splits light to find wobbles in different wavelengths. Those wobbles can reveal the existence of other worlds.

    "It is great work and shows the potential of this detection method," said Lisa Kaltenegger, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

    ___

    Associated Press Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report from Washington.
    Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.
    "Hating America is something best left to Mobius. He is an expert Yank hater.
    He also hates Texans and Australians, he does diversify." ~ Braindead

  • #2
    It has twice the mass, which sez nothing about the size. It could be an ice giant.
    Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree...

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    • #3
      Jupiter is 1000 times bigger than Earth. Pretty weird.
      Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.
      "Hating America is something best left to Mobius. He is an expert Yank hater.
      He also hates Texans and Australians, he does diversify." ~ Braindead

      Comment


      • #4
        It's in the habitable zone, but too hot for life? Why isn't this a contradiction?
        I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891

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        • #5
          Mass and size are not equivalent, Sloww. Stop living up to your name.
          Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree...

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          • #6
            Originally posted by DanS View Post
            It's in the habitable zone, but too hot for life? Why isn't this a contradiction?
            Odd, the article I read said it was outside the habitable zone.

            However, it's not a contradiction. IIRC, Venus is within the habitable zone. It's definitely too hot for life.
            Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree...

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            • #7
              Originally posted by DanS View Post
              It's in the habitable zone, but too hot for life? Why isn't this a contradiction?
              a) It's not a contradiction due to possible atmospheric considerations

              b) Read more carefully. There are two different planets with similar names.

              Gliese 581 e sits close to the nearest star, making it too hot to support life.


              Gliese 581 d, was in the prime habitable zone for potential life
              12-17-10 Mohamed Bouazizi NEVER FORGET
              Stadtluft Macht Frei
              Killing it is the new killing it
              Ultima Ratio Regum

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              • #8
                Ah, I see. You're right. It's too late for me to read clearly, so I'm hitting the sack.

                They don't know the atmosphere, so I disregarded that variable. Just missed that there were two planets.
                I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891

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                • #9
                  581 d is in the hab zone. 581 e is 1.9 Me and closer to the star, Venusian more likely.
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                  • #10
                    They don't have to know the atmosphere for the measured planet temp to be altered due to atmosphere. Though I don't know if they do sufficiently accurate spectroscopy on exoplanets to get temps out. So the "hotter" part in the article may just be a colloquialism/speculation on the part of the scientist or reporter.
                    12-17-10 Mohamed Bouazizi NEVER FORGET
                    Stadtluft Macht Frei
                    Killing it is the new killing it
                    Ultima Ratio Regum

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by SlowwHand View Post
                      This might be a good place to send Welsh people.
                      WTF? since when are the Welsh considered "people" ??
                      Libraries are state sanctioned, so they're technically engaged in privateering. - Felch
                      I thought we're trying to have a serious discussion? It says serious in the thread title!- Al. B. Sure

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                      • #12
                        Good point. I misspoke.
                        Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.
                        "Hating America is something best left to Mobius. He is an expert Yank hater.
                        He also hates Texans and Australians, he does diversify." ~ Braindead

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          :d
                          Libraries are state sanctioned, so they're technically engaged in privateering. - Felch
                          I thought we're trying to have a serious discussion? It says serious in the thread title!- Al. B. Sure

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                          • #14
                            Isn't this old news now?
                            be free

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                            • #15
                              Gliese 581 d

                              "In the beginning was the Word. Then came the ******* word processor." -Dan Simmons, Hyperion

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