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dreadgeek · 09-30-2010, 07:41 PM

This is one of those oh WOW science moments that only astronomy delivers. 20 light years from us, there is a red dwarf star named Gliese 581 and one of its planets is in what is called the 'Goldilocks zone'. Around any given star there will be one or more orbits that is neither too hot or too cold for liquid water. As far as we know, life requires liquid water (there are other options, methane could take the place of water and silicon the place of carbon) and so a planet that could sustain liquid water is one criteria we would look for in a habitable planet. The other thing about this planet which is, for now, named Gliese 581-g, is that it is tide-locked with its star. What this means is that the planet doesn't turn on its own axis. One side of the planet is in perpetual daylight and the other in perpetual darkness. The effect of this is that the climate is stable. Life can handle shifts in climate but not a truly chaotic climate.

Full article from NASA is http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/...1_feature.htmlhere.

One more thing; contemplate, if you will, just how cool it is that we have gotten to a place where we can not only detect other planets but can now actually begin to tell some things about them. To understand how remarkable a feat this is, remember that this planet is 20 light years from us. In miles that is a bit shy of 118 trillion miles! (117,569,761,144,207 miles to be a bit more precise) Say what you will about us hairless chimps, but there's no arguing that we ARE clever.

Cheers
Aj

09-30-2010, 07:41 PM	#650
dreadgeek Power Femme How Do You Identify?: Cinnamon spiced, caramel colored, power-femme Preferred Pronoun?: She Relationship Status: Married to a wonderful horse girl Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Lat: 45.60 Lon: -122.60 Posts: 1,733 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 1,132 Thanked 6,844 Times in 1,493 Posts Rep Power: 21474852	First potentially habitable planet found This is one of those oh WOW science moments that only astronomy delivers. 20 light years from us, there is a red dwarf star named Gliese 581 and one of its planets is in what is called the 'Goldilocks zone'. Around any given star there will be one or more orbits that is neither too hot or too cold for liquid water. As far as we know, life requires liquid water (there are other options, methane could take the place of water and silicon the place of carbon) and so a planet that could sustain liquid water is one criteria we would look for in a habitable planet. The other thing about this planet which is, for now, named Gliese 581-g, is that it is tide-locked with its star. What this means is that the planet doesn't turn on its own axis. One side of the planet is in perpetual daylight and the other in perpetual darkness. The effect of this is that the climate is stable. Life can handle shifts in climate but not a truly chaotic climate. Full article from NASA is http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/...1_feature.htmlhere. One more thing; contemplate, if you will, just how cool it is that we have gotten to a place where we can not only detect other planets but can now actually begin to tell some things about them. To understand how remarkable a feat this is, remember that this planet is 20 light years from us. In miles that is a bit shy of 118 trillion miles! (117,569,761,144,207 miles to be a bit more precise) Say what you will about us hairless chimps, but there's no arguing that we ARE clever. Cheers Aj __________________ Proud member of the reality-based community. "People on the side of The People always ended up disappointed, in any case. They found that The People tended not to be grateful or appreciative or forward-thinking or obedient. The People tended to be small-minded and conservative and not very clever and were even distrustful of cleverness. And so, the children of the revolution were faced with the age-old problem: it wasn’t that you had the wrong kind of government, which was obvious, but that you had the wrong kind of people. As soon as you saw people as things to be measured, they didn’t measure up." (Terry Pratchett) Last edited by dreadgeek; 09-30-2010 at 07:42 PM. Reason: corrected formatting