Near Earth-sized planet found in habitable zone: Gliese 581C

[3488]

Hi qso1,<br /><br />On the whole, things are going well, just having computer problems again!!!!!<br /><br />Gliese 581 is thought to be about 4.1 GYO, so only about 500 million years younger than our<br />Sun.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[qso1]

4 plus billion years...one can only imagine what Gliese581c and other planets have seen in that time frame, depending on when they came into existence. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[3488]

Very true.<br /><br />I wonder what orbit Gliese 581 makes around the galactic centre??<br /><br />Does it stay in the burbs like the Sun, or does it ever approach the galactic centre??<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[qso1]

Good question. Wish I knew the answer. Makes me wonder now if other stars stray in towards galactic center. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[dragon04]

Gliese 581 has a relatively high proper motion (with respect to our solar system), but nothing I've found indicates that its orbit around the galactic center is eccentric enough to cause it to approach the interior region of the galaxy.<br /><br />I would think that its orbit would behave in a manner similar to the Sun's with respect to the galactic center. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"2012.. Year of the Dragon!! Get on the Dragon Wagon!".</em> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

That's an interesting question.<br />I wonder how many stars we have actually calculated orbits for.<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[dragon04]

<font color="yellow">I wonder how many stars we have actually calculated orbits for.</font><br /><br />I wondered that myself especially as I was researching my reply. <br /><br />But it seems intuitive to me that at least out here in the periphery, stellar orbits would be "stable" and only altered by gravitic interaction with a neighbor or neighbors.<br /><br />However, I'll admit that I'm using our Solar System as a frame of reference and assuming that the principle at least in general applies to a larger system. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"2012.. Year of the Dragon!! Get on the Dragon Wagon!".</em> </div>

 

[cp28]

Well looks like they ruled 581C out.<br /><br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Scientists earlier this year announced they had found a small, rocky planet located just far enough from its star to sustain liquid water on its surface, and thus possibly support life.<br /><br />Turns out the scientists might have picked the right star for hosting a habitable world, but got the planet wrong. The world known as Gliese 581c is probably too hot to support liquid water or life, new computer models suggest, but conditions on its neighbor, Gliese 581d, might be just right.<br /><br />The findings are detailed in the May 25 issue of the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.<br /><br />So much promise<br /><br />Gliese 581c, discovered in April by a team led by Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland, is about 50 percent bigger than Earth and about five times more massive. It is located about 20.5 light-years away, and circles a dim red dwarf star called Gliese 581.<br /><br />Of the more than 200 extrasolar planets, or "exoplanets," discovered since 1995, Gliese 581c was the first found that resides within the habitable zone of its star, if only barely. The habitable, or "Goldilocks" zone is the region around a star where the temperature is neither too hot nor too cold, so water can exist on a planet's surface in its liquid state. Water is a key ingredient for life as we know it.<br /><br />But new simulations of the climate on Gliese 581c created by Werner von Bloh of the Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and his team suggest the planet is no Earthly paradise, but rather a faraway Venus, where carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere create a runaway greenhouse effect that warms the planet well above 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 Celsius), boiling away liquid water and with it any promise of life.<br /><br />Another contender<br /><br />But the same greenhouse effect that squashes prospects for life on Gliese 581c raises the same</p></blockquote>

 

[3488]

We will not know for sure, until we have spectra of these planets. Very interesting though.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[vonster]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p> new simulations of the climate on Gliese 581c created by Werner von Bloh of the Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and his team suggest the planet is no Earthly paradise, but rather a faraway Venus, where carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere create a runaway greenhouse effect that warms the planet well above 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 Celsius), boiling away liquid water and with it any promise of life<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br /><br />That's interesting ... <br /><br />With no actual data about atmosphere and very little of anything else concrete other than:<br /><br />"it exists, somewhere in this general orbit ... and has mass .. of something around (X) where X ranges at least a few earth masses.."<br /><br />... they are making conclusions? In any direction?<br /><br />Please<br /><br />Then:<br /><br /><br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>But the same greenhouse effect that squashes prospects for life on Gliese 581c raises the same hope for another planet in the system, a world of eight Earth-masses called Gliese 581d, which was also discovered by Udry's team.<br /><br />"This planet is actually outside the habitable zone," said Manfred &%$#@!z, an astronomer at the University of Texas at Arlington and a member of von Bloh's team. "It appears at first sight too cold. However, based on the greenhouse effect, physical processes can occur which are heating up the planet to a temperature that allows for fluid water."<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />?<br /><br />Again - based on what. <br /><br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>There is no evidence to support that speculation, however<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br /><br />Exactly, there's hardly any evidence to support any of this speculation - about composition or atmosphere, let alone pro life or against.<br /><br />All of this is an education in how news hungry some scientists are to be 'fir

 

[heyscottie]

Well, there's more to it than pure sensationalism, but I'd say that you are largely right. These conclusions are based on models that have to make certain assumptions of pieces of data that we just don't have. The fidelity of the model will depend upon the accuracy of those assumptions. Generally, media will not make that clear, since they want to have a headline like "Earth 2 turns into primordial Hell, but Earth 3's real estate prices are shooting up!" That's a headline that people will read.