Life may exist on one of the most recent planets to be found outside the solar system in 2010. For 11 years, planet hunters have been monitoring a red dwarf star called Gliese 581 about 20 light years away suspected of harboring an Earthlike planet. A team of astronomers announced Wednesday that they had hit pay-dirt with the finding of Gliese 581g, an Earthlike planet in the star’s “Goldilocks zone,” an orbital distance where temperatures are considered suitable for life.
Here is the Goldilocks zone
Gliese 581g was a new planet found this year and announced by R. Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institute of Washington and Steven S. Vogt of the University of California, Santa Cruz. As reported in the NY Times, Gliese (GLEE-za) 581g orbits Gliese 581, a dim red star, once each 37 days at a distance of about 14 million miles. Water and life can survive on this planet because it is in the best place within the Goldilocks zone. Apparently it is the perfect temperature meaning it isn’t too hot or too cold and can sustain life. When asked about life on Gliese 581g, Vogt said the chances “are almost 100 percent.”.
Gliese 581g factors generating it feasible to support life
We know the star, Gliese 581, it only a 3rd the size of the sun however is one hundred times brighter. It has six known planets orbiting it, including Gliese 581g. The Goldilocks zone has two of the planets orbiting Gliese 581 in it, reports Scientific Americans. Gliese 581g orbits between those worlds although it is three times the size of earth. It is the first Goldilocks exoplanet to be discovered. It does not seem to be like Earth. Gliese 581g is what planet hunters call “tidally locked,” meaning it is like the moon in that only one side of it faces its star. Surface temperatures are expected to range from 31 below zero Fahrenheit on the night side to 158 degrees on the day side. Somewhere in between permanent daylight and permanent night, which Vogt called “eco-longitudes,” some form of life could become established.
This year, exoplanets are being identified
Gliese 581g was found using the radial-velocity, or “wobble,” technique. As explained in the Los Angeles Times, the wobble technique detects exoplanets by measuring a barely discernible gravitational tug they give their star during orbit. The planet hunters also made precise brightness measurements, confirming the specific wobbles in Gliese 581 were triggered by Gliese 581g, not by any activity within the star itself.
Data from
New York Times
nytimes.com/2010/09/30/science/space/30planet.html?_r=1 and ref=science
Scientific American
scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=habitable-exoplanet-gliese-581
Los Angeles times
latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-earth-like-planet,,7897054.story
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