Found: The New Earth

[Ptarmigan]

Link

Interesting. An Earth-like planet around another star. I wonder if there is life?

[x-y-no]

Link

Interesting. An Earth-like planet around another star. I wonder if there is life?

Wow ... now that's exciting. The right temperature for liquid water. It's five Earth masses and 1.5 Earth diameters, so the surface gravity would be about 2.2G - not pleasant but not intolerable. And it's only 20.5 light years away. It's entirely plausible that we could mount an expedition there without any revolutionary advances in space travel engineering.

Neat!

[abajan]

I haven't read the link but I'm sure there's other life out there somewhere in this vast universe.

Our own galaxy probably contains other life, considering the number of stars it has.

[x-y-no]

I haven't read the link but I'm sure there's other life out there somewhere in this vast universe.

Our own galaxy probably contains other life, considering the number of stars it has.

Well yeah, I think so too. But it sure would be something to have definitive proof. And if there's life only 20.5 light years away, then odds are there's life all over the place, conservatively on hundreds of millions of planets in this galaxy alone (there are between 200 billion and 400 billion stars in the galaxy.)

[Nimbus]

If there was a species capable of listening to the cosmos for narrow bandwidth signatures of technology what would the earth sound like?

Most of the background noise in the galaxy is random and only in the last 100 years or so has the earth been radiating radio noise from civilization.

There might be life out there somewhere but it is a lot less likely to be technically evolved enough to reach out to other stars. It is really a historically very short time that we have been listening here on earth.

[O Town]

Very exciting stuff!

By 2020 at least one space telescope should be in orbit, with the capability of detecting signs of life on planets orbiting nearby stars. If oxygen or methane (tell-tale biological gases) are found in Gliese 581c's atmosphere, this would be good circumstantial evidence for life.

I can't wait!

[coriolis]

If there was a species capable of listening to the cosmos for narrow bandwidth signatures of technology what would the earth sound like?

Most of the background noise in the galaxy is random and only in the last 100 years or so has the earth been radiating radio noise from civilization.

When they get our "Head-On" commercials they won't bother with us.

[kevin]

If there was a species capable of listening to the cosmos for narrow bandwidth signatures of technology what would the earth sound like?

Most of the background noise in the galaxy is random and only in the last 100 years or so has the earth been radiating radio noise from civilization.

When they get our "Head-On" commercials they won't bother with us.

So true. Unless they come to believe we are an advanced species that has found the cure for pain, instead of morons who are conned into rubbing candle wax against our foreheads.

[JonathanBelles]

Not to be rude, but isnt this like the other earth-like planets they have found in the past years? What is the difference other than place?

[kevin]

They haven't found anything remotely like earth, anywhere, ever. What are you talking about exactly?

The gas giant almost sun planets which make Jupiter look like a wuss that sit relatively on top of their respective stars???? That's what I call not like earth at all.

[JonathanBelles]

They found one near saturn and one in somewhere else (i forgot) but it was never talked about it again.

[x-y-no]

Not to be rude, but isnt this like the other earth-like planets they have found in the past years? What is the difference other than place?

I'm not aware of anything this earth-like ever having been discovered, and I pay pretty close attention. Why don't you share what you know and we don't?

[Coredesat]

They found one near saturn and one in somewhere else (i forgot) but it was never talked about it again.

That would be Saturn's moon Titan, and it's not Earth-like in any sense other than the fact that it might have liquid water.

[x-y-no]

They found one near saturn and one in somewhere else (i forgot) but it was never talked about it again.

You're talking about Titan or Europa, maybe? First, those are moons, not planets. And while Titan does have a dense mostly methane atmosphere and Europa probably has liquid water somewhere deep under the ice crust, that's not really as exciting as the prospect of a planet which could have liquid water on the surface. Furthermore, I don't think bodies in our own solar system which we've known about for centuries are quite the same thing as confirming an Earth-like planet in another nearby star system.

[Opal storm]

Wow this is interesting news.I hope they find out more about it.

[Terrell]

They found one near saturn and one in somewhere else (i forgot) but it was never talked about it again.

You're talking about Titan or Europa, maybe? First, those are moons, not planets. And while Titan does have a dense mostly methane atmosphere and Europa probably has liquid water somewhere deep under the ice crust, that's not really as exciting as the prospect of a planet which could have liquid water on the surface. Furthermore, I don't think bodies in our own solar system which we've known about for centuries are quite the same thing as confirming an Earth-like planet in another nearby star system.

Titan's atmosphere has methane in it, but it's mostly Nitrogen.

[Windswept]

Pre-construction time share units now available

[HURAKAN]

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_581_c

Interesting information:
Climatic
Gliese 581 c has a projected equilibrium surface temperature between 0°C and 40°C[2]. However, the actual temperature on the surface depends on the planet's atmosphere, which remains unknown. Research team member Xavier Delfosse expects that the actual surface temperatures will only be hotter; for instance, the corresponding calculation for Earth yields an "effective surface temperature" of 256 K (−17°C), yet Earth's true surface is 32 K warmer, an average of 288 K (15°C), due to the greenhouse effect of its atmosphere. [5]

Because of its close orbit around its parent star, the planet would experience tides about 400 times as strong as those that the Moon causes on the Earth. It may be tidally locked to the star, with one hemisphere always lit and the other always dark. The lit hemisphere might be extremely hot and the dark hemisphere extremely cold, while the narrow terminator or "twilight zone" between them might have a moderate climate more suitable for life similar to Earth's.[6]

A theoretical model predicts that volatile compounds such as water and carbon dioxide might evaporate in the scorching heat of the sunward side, migrate to the cooler night side, and condense to form ice caps. Over time, the entire atmosphere could become frozen as ice caps on the night side of the planet. Alternatively, if it has an atmosphere large enough to be stable, it should circulate the heat more evenly, allowing for a wider habitable area on the surface.[7]

[kevin]

Bet they have a Starbucks.