Earth like planet found

[DisgruntledGoat]

Sauce

A team of planet hunters led by astronomers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Carnegie Institution of Washington has announced the discovery of an Earth-sized planet (three times the mass of Earth) orbiting a nearby star at a distance that places it squarely in the middle of the star's "habitable zone," where liquid water could exist on the planet's surface. If confirmed, this would be the most Earth-like exoplanet yet discovered and the first strong case for a potentially habitable one.

We live in exciting times.

[Gordon Freynman]

Awesome. I bet we find a lot more when we get sufficient data from the Kepler mission.

[pannonian]

What would the gravity be like on a planet like this? Is it possible to guess at the existence of an atmosphere and magnetic field based purely on size and distance from the star, or does there need to be more information than is available?

[Gordon Freynman]

What would the gravity be like on a planet like this? Is it possible to guess at the existence of an atmosphere and magnetic field based purely on size and distance from the star, or does there need to be more information than is available?

Depends on the radius of the planet, but it would likely be more than Earth's gravity.

[Aetius]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100929/...sci_new_earths

Damn it, you got to post it first!


This really got me excited! We live on the cusp of the greatest potential of humanity.

Really all our problems on Earth are secondary to finding planets in universe. Nations matter not, there is only Humanity. Religion matters not, there is only the Cosmos. Suffering matters not, for there is the our potential.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[DisgruntledGoat]

I should have pointed that out. This discovery comes from land based telescopes and years of study. So you are right, this will only get better from here.

[Ramashan]

Although I do find the news super exciting, it is a little like seeing a party across the river and wishing you were there in that we can view it, but never really experience it. But that could change in the future if we can get craft fast enough and then 100 years later see an image.

Otherwise, just knowing that other Earth like worlds exist is in and of itself a big deal. If true, it means we are less alone than we thought

[Elfdude]

Moar sauce

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...ef=online-news

[CamilleBonparte]

3 times the size of Earth? Now I feel inadequate.

How long until someone tries to make this a religious discussion.

[Gigan]

Too bad we'll never be able to visit it unless we invent hyperspace.

[Phier]

3 times the mass has me thinking the chemistry is going to be very messy, with a lot of extra atmosphere, and very Venus like.

I'm going to guess its not a place you want to visit to find Tribbles.

[Sphere]

The real question though is was/is there life there.

We are still utterly lost in our knowledge of how frequent life is in the universe because we currently have a sample size of one. But that being said, if we find any form of life on just one planet besides our own, it would mean life must be ubiquitous throughout the universe given how small a fraction of what we can actually study represents in cosmological scale.

[cenkiss]

How do we know there is no life in other parts of solar system?

[MathiasOfAthens]

How do we know there is no life in other parts of solar system?

The life we are looking for we are quite certain does not exist on any other planet in our system. It is likely that we can find some bacteria or lesser forms of live on a moon or maybe a planet but the chance is small.



From the OP: I dont really understand what it means when it says it found an earth size planet but then immediately contradicts itself by saying it is not the same size but 3 times larger?

[Colonel Cleg McLeg]

From the OP: I dont really understand what it means when it says it found an earth size planet but then immediately contradicts itself by saying it is not the same size but 3 times larger?

Mass /= Size. If you read on through the article, you'll find it says that the diameter of this new planet is between 1.2 - 1.4 times that of Earth. Mass, however is a very different thing - I'd guess it contains far more of the heavier elements of the periodic table - such as iron - than the Earth does, which would account for the difference in mass.

Anyway, I'm really excited about this discovery. Even if we ultimately discover that this planet is unsuitable for life, its a strong suggestion that earth-like planets within the habitable zone are a far more regular occurrence than we previously thought - and maybe, that life is too.

[jản]

//

Too bad it would take about 900.000 years to reach this planet.

If i calculated correct:

Gliese 581, located 20 light years away from Earth in the constellation Libra ...

> 1 light year = 9,4605 Trillion Kilometers (9.460.500.000.000 km) in one year
> travel duration for 1 light year at 25.000 km/h (normal space shuttle speed today)

= 378.420.000 hours
= 15.767.500 days
= 43.169 years

> multiplied with 20 = 863.972,603 years

//

[Jack04]

As long as you don't care that by the time you arrive your entire family will be long dead (along with the human race, perhaps?) you could theoretically get there without even ageing a day. Marvellous stuff.

Certainly very interesting. I've done a certain amount of reading on the hunt for extra-solar planets and some of the techniques used are very clever indeed.

[Gordon Freynman]

//

Too bad it would take about 900.000 years to reach this planet.

If i calculated correct:



> 1 light year = 9,4605 Trillion Kilometers (9.460.500.000.000 km) in one year
> travel duration for 1 light year at 25.000 km/h (normal space shuttle speed today)

= 378.420.000 hours
= 15.767.500 days
= 43.169 years

> multiplied with 20 = 863.972,603 years

//

One thing you can be sure of is that we will never use something as slow as the space shuttle to reach the distant stars.

[hippacrocafish]

//

Too bad it would take about 900.000 years to reach this planet.

If i calculated correct:



> 1 light year = 9,4605 Trillion Kilometers (9.460.500.000.000 km) in one year
> travel duration for 1 light year at 25.000 km/h (normal space shuttle speed today)

= 378.420.000 hours
= 15.767.500 days
= 43.169 years

> multiplied with 20 = 863.972,603 years

//

This is basically why I don't care about any story like this. It doesn't matter if we find a dozen planets that are exactly like Earth because it's pretty much impossible to get to them unless we invent a spacecraft that can create wormholes or bend the fabric of space and time, something that I don't even think is possible just because of the sheer amount of energy required for such a device.

[Holger Danske]

//

Too bad it would take about 900.000 years to reach this planet.

If i calculated correct:



> 1 light year = 9,4605 Trillion Kilometers (9.460.500.000.000 km) in one year
> travel duration for 1 light year at 25.000 km/h (normal space shuttle speed today)

= 378.420.000 hours
= 15.767.500 days
= 43.169 years

> multiplied with 20 = 863.972,603 years

//

Yeah, with conventional rockets, which isn't even possible due to fuel limitations.

With laser sail propulsion travelling a around 1/10 the speed of light a voyage to Alpha Centauri, our nearest star, would take around 100 years. Fly by would take "only" 42 years. Thats about 500 years to reach Gliese 581. Now if only we want to study that star system then i would properly take ~250 years from mission start til we start getting data.

A long time, but that has to do until we find that ellusive Mass Relay near Pluto...