Second Earth was found!

[Charlotte]

Yet another stuff that I watched on News recently.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2007/04/25/planet372.jpg

The Earth-like Gliese 581C circles a star in the constellation of Libra that is cooler than our sun.

Unfortunately it's 20 light years away. :(

I think that the new planet can support some organisms.


Scientists have discovered a warm and rocky "second Earth" circling a star, a find they believe dramatically boosts the prospects that we are not alone.

The planet is the most Earth-like ever spotted and is thought to have perfect conditions for water, an essential ingredient for life. Researchers detected the planet orbiting one of Earth's nearest stars, a cool red dwarf called Gliese 581, 20 light years away in the constellation of Libra.

Measurements of the planet's celestial path suggest it is 1½ times the size of our home planet, and orbits close to its sun, with a year of just 13 days. The planet's orbit brings it 14 times closer to its star than Earth is to the sun. But Gliese 581 burns at only 3,000C, half the temperature of our own sun, making conditions on the planet comfortable for life, with average ground temperatures estimated at 0 to 40C. Researchers claim the planet is likely to have an atmosphere. The discovery follows a three-year search for habitable planets by the European Southern Observatory at La Silla in Chile.

"We wouldn't be surprised if there is life on this planet," said Stephane Udry, an astronomer on the project at the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland.

Two years ago, the same team discovered a giant Neptune-sized planet orbiting Gliese 581. A closer look revealed the latest planetary discovery, along with a third, larger planet that orbits the star every 84 days. The planets have been named after their star, with the most earthlike called Gliese 581c. The team spotted the planet by searching the "habitable zone".

Very amazing!

*p/s I cannot find the video of the planet on youtube.

[HamadaLFC8]

Which planet is it ? Either one doesn't look too friendly xD

[jango]

Which planet is it ? Either one doesn't look too friendly xD

It's called Gliese 581C .. there are a few other Gliese too (at least 6 so far), not just this one. This isn't really 'new' news.

I remember hearing about all of this maybe 2 or 3 years ago. It still amazes me that people consider 'alien life forms' to be somewhat civilised or of a similar make-up to us, and only able to evolve in similar environments. However, Hawkings wrote some good stuff on this (including his explanations of Gliese planets and how we might migrate there in 6 billion years when the Sun is supposed to engulf the Earth .. *shrug*), and if I remember right some of it was extensively featured in this series on Discovery (http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/stephen-hawking/).

[HamadaLFC8]

Alies do exist! They are just waiting for Chuck Norris to die!

That's when they will attack!

[jango]

Alies do exist! They are just waiting for Chuck Norris to die!

That's when they will attack!

You better believe it baby!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsXnK0ouTL8

[Charlotte]

You better believe it baby!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsXnK0ouTL8

Lmao indeed.

[Kuwabara5678]

I'm sure there are thousands of Earth-like planets out there.

It's unrealistic to think we're the only planet with life.

[Cowboy is Chaos]

Its actually not so unrealistic to believe that we are the only life into planet.
I'm not arguing for the intelligent design, but if you look at a few factors required for life it is easy to acknowledge that there is a very very very very slim chance of another place like earth that exists.

Gravity happens to be set so that life can exist. If you stretched a ruler across the entire universe, and broke it down by each inch...and set gravity at a certain point...then if that point moved even an inch(compared to the length of the universe) then intelligent life could not exist....

Same idea with the Cosmological Constant...has to be a certain number...
just some interesting ideas

[Kuwabara5678]

But space is so big. Dx

There's bound to be another place.

Those are some pretty legit points though...
Well... They SOUND legit.

[LiNuX]

It's called Gliese 581C .. there are a few other Gliese too (at least 6 so far), not just this one. This isn't really 'new' news.

I remember hearing about all of this maybe 2 or 3 years ago. It still amazes me that people consider 'alien life forms' to be somewhat civilised or of a similar make-up to us, and only able to evolve in similar environments. However, Hawkings wrote some good stuff on this (including his explanations of Gliese planets and how we might migrate there in 6 billion years when the Sun is supposed to engulf the Earth .. *shrug*), and if I remember right some of it was extensively featured in this series on Discovery (http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/stephen-hawking/).

They discovered it more than 3 years ago. And they doubt the Gliese 581C is earth like because it's much more massive and scientists somehow figured out that it's rotation is the same as it's revolution, which is like our moon. So it only shows one face towards its star which makes it less likely for it to support water and/or life. They estimate the temperature to be pretty high too.

They're still trying to figure out the chemical makeout of the atmosphere still. So until then, everything is still a theory.

And I'm sure before 6 billion years is up, we should have mastered wormholes...otherwise I'd be very disappointed.


Its actually not so unrealistic to believe that we are the only life into planet.
I'm not arguing for the intelligent design, but if you look at a few factors required for life it is easy to acknowledge that there is a very very very very slim chance of another place like earth that exists.

Gravity happens to be set so that life can exist. If you stretched a ruler across the entire universe, and broke it down by each inch...and set gravity at a certain point...then if that point moved even an inch(compared to the length of the universe) then intelligent life could not exist....

Same idea with the Cosmological Constant...has to be a certain number...
just some interesting ideas

I think we should differentiate between life and intelligent life. Intelligent life is defined as life who can contemplate about who they are, where they came from, and be able to communicate "intelligently" - it's a paraphrase but it's basically what scientists use to define intelligent life (not the basic meaning of the word intelligence)

And gravity isn't the only thing that affects life and I'm not really sure about what point you're trying to make with moving gravity an inch. Gravity isn't constant and it's definitely not the most important factor when it comes to life. Right now, the best theory is water. You'd also have to be somewhere with a magnetic field so you can be free from charged particles coming from the sun/stars. And you'd also need some fuel in the atmosphere to help the life "breathe" (although it may not be the same breathing as us) - in our case it's oxygen.

And even though there is a very very very slim chance of life existing elsewhere, you have to look at how big the universe is. There are hundreds of billions of galaxies which contain hundreds of billions of stars each (some containing trillions due to mergers) and even if there is life on 1 planet out of every 10,000 galaxies, that number eventually gets pretty big when you make it proportional to the actual amount of galaxies out there. And I know even then, the actual percentage of chance is very small, but it's big enough for people to wonder and keep on searching.

[EpsilonX]

Its actually not so unrealistic to believe that we are the only life into planet.
I'm not arguing for the intelligent design, but if you look at a few factors required for life it is easy to acknowledge that there is a very very very very slim chance of another place like earth that exists.

Considering the fact that space is limitless, it's actually very unrealistic to think that. There have to be more than trillions of planets out there. Some of them are so far away we will never be able to reach or even discover them. and besides human life isn't the only life. we had life on earth during the precambrian age, which were basically small single cell organisms. eventually they evolved into flat things and large insects. Do you really believe that small life like that does not exist? In case you've forgotten, bacteria is life.

And gravity is unnecesarry. If there is life on another planet it will be adapted to whatever force of gravity there is. With the planet being 1.5 times the size of ours, gravity will be a little greater on that planet. So organisms probably won't be able to get as big as on ours.

[LemonRising]

*feels very very small*


one day i'm sure we'll find a planet with some form of life on it. and that day we'll be like "WOAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" and then we'll make plans to move to it before the sun blows up and in, and then we'll slowly ruin that planet. lmfao
or maybe we'll be like "yeah mang, lets be one with the land~" all native like.

[EpsilonX]

*feels very very small*

earth's surface area is 260173445148000000 kilometers

earth's circumference at the equator is 40,075.16 kilometers

kilometers is 1000 meters

a meter is 3.2808 feet.

how many feet tall is lamoonz?

http://startswithabang.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/sun_v_planets.jpg


http://www.tlims.co.uk/universe/picture5.jpg

[LemonRising]

lemons is 5'6.

*now feels. like .. an atom.*

[Jaykub]

Its amazing to think there is another world we that may actually have life or be livable for us. But tbh its really not that shocking when you think of how big the universe is. There has to be more than us out there.

[Dess]

lemons is 5'6.

*now feels. like .. an atom.*

I'm 5'2"......

[EpsilonX]

I'm 5'10 lol

[Charlotte]

earth's surface area is 260173445148000000 kilometers

earth's circumference at the equator is 40,075.16 kilometers

kilometers is 1000 meters

a meter is 3.2808 feet.

how many feet tall is lamoonz?

http://startswithabang.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/sun_v_planets.jpg


http://www.tlims.co.uk/universe/picture5.jpg

Lmao what a fact was that. :D