Earth like planet.Gliese 581c.

[Loraela]

Gliese 581c is a newly found earth like planet. It is revolving around its sun glies 581. It is very similar to our planet earth. Do you belive life on glies 581c is possible?

 

[derekmcd]

I had to do a quick review, but it seems that the temperatures are a bit on the high side to support life 'as we know it'. Even the most extreme of earth's extremophiles couldn't survive there. That's not to say it is impossible. However, life 'as we know it' is not likely.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Sorry, but "newly found" really doesn't apply to this exoplanet.

 

[3488]

Welcome to SDC Loreala.

That's very true Wayne, discovered nearly two years ago now on: Friday 27th April 2007.

Derek provided an excellent answer & I agree with him 100%, so my verdict is the same.

The other issue I have is that Gliese 591c is Earthlike.

Certainly not. Gleise 581c has a mass just over FIVE times that of the Earth, so to me at once, that precludes Earthlike.

It's like saying Mars is Mercury like, despite Mars having TWICE Mercury's mass & orbiting far further from the Sun. The two are vastly different despite sharing some similarities. Both have impact craters, both have volcanoes, both have lava plains, both have impact basins, both have a surface gravity of nearly 38% that of Earth. There basically any similarities end.

Mercury has a significant magnetosphere & most likely a dual layered core, things that Mars lacks in both cases. However Mars has a thin but proper atmosphere, dunes, water carved features, ice caps, frosts, clouds, precipitation (proven beyond doubt by Mars Phoenix Lander), subsurface ice, possibly even liquid brines, things Mercury lacks. Also Mercury is far denser than Mars.

IMO the differences between Earth & Gliese 581c are even going to be far more reaching still, than the differences between Mercury & Mars. The percentage difference in mass between Earth & Gliese 581c is far greater ( Earth being 20% that of Gliece 581c) than the difference between Mercury & Mars (Mercury being nearly 50% that of Mars).

I have voted BTW as this is a perfectly valid poll. Will be interesting to see how the votes go from now on.

Andrew Brown.

 

[xXTheOneRavenXx]

I agree, this IS a very valid poll. There has been various predictions about this exoplanet. There "could" be life there, but not as we know it. But in my own personal opinion the answer is no.

 

[derekmcd]

We're O fer 7. It is quite conceivable that we are all a bit deluded in what environments we believe life can exist. After all... we only have an example of one. A bit tough to create a statistical analysis from a singular example.

 

[xXTheOneRavenXx]

One of my exoplanet videos has Gliese581c as being on 2 1/2 times the size of earth. However the video is about a year old, so perhaps the size measurements were updated since the video was made.

 

[nimbus]

The poll question is whether 581C is suitable for human life. That's a very open question. It doesn't specify any criteria such as now or in the future. Future technology ought to make it possible. As for living naked on that planet, it's a pretty academic question and just depends on exact measurements or inferals of the conditions on the surface, or somewhere above or below it, failing that...

Gravity would be pretty hefty in any case, wouldn't it?

 

[derekmcd]

The poll question is whether 581C is suitable for human life. That's a very open question. It doesn't specify any criteria such as now or in the future. Future technology ought to make it possible. As for living naked on that planet, it's a pretty academic question and just depends on exact measurements or inferals of the conditions on the surface, or somewhere above or below it, failing that...

Gravity would be pretty hefty in any case, wouldn't it?

A very astute observation. I made the mistake of assuming the question was in regards to life originating there. Should the original question provide some rather extreme parameters, it is possible a change in my answer may occur. Unlikely, but possible.

 

[bearack]

I really can't vote on something that is so much speculation. There should have been at least four possible answers. The answer I would have voted for would be "Not likely, but it is in the habitable zone and once we can determine the exact environment of the planet, it's open for discussion".

 

[AceSuperVillain]

What's interesting is the way it's phrased. If you mean could a human land on G581c right now and take off its space-helmet and be alright, my vote is a complete No. But, if the question was just "is there some form of life on G581c right now?" I would definitely vote yes. Some sort of cyanobacteria or algaeoid extremephile lifeform would not be outrageous to expect on a planet that is sort of within its star's habitable zone.

To be honest though, the thing that really interests me is the rather outstanding gap between G581's planet c and planet d. (view here) Seems to me that if G581's planets are evenly spaced like the ones in our system, there should be something in that gap. Maybe just an asteroid field or a dwarf, but maybe something Mars to Earth sized that people can live on. And in that case, since planet c is on the warm edge of the zone and planet d is on the cold edge, planet N would be juuuuuuuuust right. (Small planets are harder to detect, G581c is still the smallest thing ever discovered via radial velocity around a main sequence star)

But then even if such a planet is there, it doesn't mean it will be habitable to us. Even if it's the right size and the right temperature, it needs to have the right N-O atmosphere or we can't breath on it, and the UV radiation from G581 might kill us off anyways. Not to mention the probable tidal lock which could do who knows what to the planet. My bet is that however good these planets get, we will never find a Trekkian M-class planet that we can just land on happily.

 

[ZenGalacticore]

The detail of data(and the ability to comprehensively analyze that data) in our remote-sensing capabilities as of yet is totally inadequate in its capability in determining the habitable viability of exo-planets 20 or more light-years away. Gliese c may well have life. But so might Gliese d.

The planet with 2 or 3 or more x the mass or gravity of Earth could support life as we know it and don't know it. Greater gravity due to greater mass could mean lifeforms with greater carbonate/ calcium bone density and exo-shell; or greater mass and density of proteinic muscle. We really can't tell yet, because Gliese c and d are so far away and as of yet our detection ability is 'primitive', at best.

But that is soon to change!!! Woohoo!!!! I hope I live another 20 to 40 years!!! Fantastic discoveries await us, even if we can't go there physically.

Even so, if we could confirm oceans of liquid water on either Gliese c or d, that'd be good enough for this 46-year-old. Well...good enough for now! I expect and demand more data next week!!