Scientists discover a nearly Earth-sized planet

[Ben Kenobi]

Wow, lots of hype for nothing. Gliese 581 is a red dwarf. Very, very unlikely to have any life whatsoever.

Now if it were a G1V then we'd be talking.

The rotation period for Gliese E is 3 days. Way too short.

Gliese D is 7 earth masses, which is way too large.

Gliese C is the best candidate, but has a period of only 12 days.

This is why red dwarves make very poor candidates.

[Dinner]

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.

No, Venus is not.

[Arrian]

Wow, lots of hype for nothing. Gliese 581 is a red dwarf. Very, very unlikely to have any life whatsoever.

Now if it were a G1V then we'd be talking.

The rotation period for Gliese E is 3 days. Way too short.

Gliese D is 7 earth masses, which is way too large.

Gliese C is the best candidate, but has a period of only 12 days.

This is why red dwarves make very poor candidates.

Of course, there are a lot of assumptions that underlay the "habitable zone." The biggest, of course, is that life would be fundamentally similar to life on Earth. Not a crazy assumption, but I don't see how it's a sure thing.

-Arrian

[Donegeal]

When is that exoplanet satalite susposed to start working?

[Thue]

When is that exoplanet satalite susposed to start working?

Kepler works by comparing the light from stars over long periods of time. So try again in a year.