Earth-like planet found

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Scientists discover a nearly Earth-sized planet
… By JENNIFER QUINN, Associated Press Writer Jennifer Quinn, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 37 mins ago

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.
 
You know, I've been thinking about it. There's really no reason a very near star, like even alpha centauri, couldn't have an Earth sized planet. We don't really have instruments sensitive enough yet to predict whether or not a star has planets that size yet.

And if we found one, we could make either a fission or fusion rocket and probably be their within a lifetime.
 
These types of articles are always of interest to me. Though I must say, it does amuse me when they say the planets are "Most were too close or too far from their sun, making them too hot or too cold for life".

Hmmm... slightly arrogant on our part? Shouldn't that say 'too close or too far from their sun for life AS WE KNOW IT?'

:)
 
These types of articles are always of interest to me. Though I must say, it does amuse me when they say the planets are "Most were too close or too far from their sun, making them too hot or too cold for life".

Hmmm... slightly arrogant on our part? Shouldn't that say 'too close or too far from their sun for life AS WE KNOW IT?'

:)

I suppose, but how could they look for something, or at least identify it, without some known context such as carbon-based life? I remember some time last year a colony of living sea creatures was found somewhere in the Indian Ocean that thrived in an extreme acid environment (was it sulfuric acid?), and was antithetical to anything that we'd known before. We have to be able to recognize a life form to acknowledge it, and our frames of reference are always limited by our prior knowledge.
 
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I suppose, but how could they look for something, or at least identify it, without some known context such as carbon-based life? I remember some time last year a colony of living sea creatures was found somewhere in the Indian Ocean that thrived in an extreme acid environment, and was antithetical to anything that we'd known before. We have to be able to recognize a life form to acknowledge it, and our frames of reference are always limited by our prior knowledge.

I agree with the above, but that is the very reason statements like the one I highlighted should be rephrased to at least include the 'as we know it' portion.

Maybe I am just being too picky, but it tends to strike me as an absolute the way they phrase it. :)
 
Scientists discover a nearly Earth-sized planet
… By JENNIFER QUINN, Associated Press Writer Jennifer Quinn, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 37 mins ago

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.

Unlike this planet, does it contain intelligent life?
 
I suppose, but how could they look for something, or at least identify it, without some known context such as carbon-based life? I remember some time last year a colony of living sea creatures was found somewhere in the Indian Ocean that thrived in an extreme acid environment (was it sulfuric acid?), and was antithetical to anything that we'd known before. We have to be able to recognize a life form to acknowledge it, and our frames of reference are always limited by our prior knowledge.

We should obviously concentrate on carbon rich planets in the "habitable zone". Although a sample size of eight planets isn't great, it's all we have to go on, and the only planet that's made life in these eight planets is Earth. So, clearly, these kinds of planets are the most likely to have life to our knowledge, because they're the only planets to have made life to our knowledge. I don't believe anyone has really even come up with a reasonable framework for how life would develop without a carbon rich environment; and that's the biggest problem with the boiling gas giants. No one's ever seen or even guesstimated up life made out of hydrogen and methane; carbon is a very special element that's uniquely suited to making things like life.

And, of course, to try to rebut your example, those creatures developed in an life-unfriendly environment after billions of years of being surrounded by creatures in a life friendly environment, and there still aren't many of them. They had lots of chances to be created, and if the first creature had been created there it probably would've fallen over dead.

I think the main reason for this is that the enzymes we need to make life reactions easier work mainly in a temperate environment with a moderate PH. I'm not a biologist though, I've just taken a couple of classes.
 
We should obviously concentrate on carbon rich planets in the "habitable zone". Although a sample size of eight planets isn't great, it's all we have to go on, and the only planet that's made life in these eight planets is Earth. So, clearly, these kinds of planets are the most likely to have life to our knowledge, because they're the only planets to have made life to our knowledge. I don't believe anyone has really even come up with a reasonable framework for how life would develop without a carbon rich environment; and that's the biggest problem with the boiling gas giants. No one's ever seen or even guesstimated up life made out of hydrogen and methane; carbon is a very special element that's uniquely suited to making things like life.

And, of course, to try to rebut your example, those creatures developed in an life-unfriendly environment after billions of years of being surrounded by creatures in a life friendly environment, and there still aren't many of them. They had lots of chances to be created, and if the first creature had been created there it probably would've fallen over dead.

I think the main reason for this is that the enzymes we need to make life reactions easier work mainly in a temperate environment with a moderate PH. I'm not a biologist though, I've just taken a couple of classes.

Perhaps life on other planets has advanced enough for their tech to allow them to live comfortably on planets not friendly to their life form? Or to "terra" Form planets outside the normal habitable life zone to sustain their life?

There is no reason to ASS.U.ME that we are the most intellligent and advanced forms of life in the universe.
 
Perhaps life on other planets has advanced enough for their tech to allow them to live comfortably on planets not friendly to their life form?

There is no reason to ASS.U.ME that we are the most intellligent and advanced forms of life in the universe.

There's no reason to assume we aren't either.
 
These types of articles are always of interest to me. Though I must say, it does amuse me when they say the planets are "Most were too close or too far from their sun, making them too hot or too cold for life".

Hmmm... slightly arrogant on our part? Shouldn't that say 'too close or too far from their sun for life AS WE KNOW IT?'

:)


Thank you for saying that to which I will add, exactly!

It amuses me to think we may be the brightest in the universe!
 
will not, you are a liar for making that assumption.

says the liar who called me a hypocrite when i have always held that stance....

i'm sorry you are liar....and i highly doubt that if you don't trust your fellow man that you will trust some alien life.....
 
says the liar who called me a hypocrite when i have always held that stance....

i'm sorry you are liar....and i highly doubt that if you don't trust your fellow man that you will trust some alien life.....

I hope that a highly advanced species roaming the stars would no longer kill for property.

I only trust those who have earned my trust.
 
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