First Habitable Planet Confirmed by French Scientists

Greg Tito

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Sep 29, 2005
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First Habitable Planet Confirmed by French Scientists



French scientists believe that a planet orbiting the red dwarf star Gliese 581 could sustain life similar to Earth.

Twenty light years away is a small red star. Orbiting this sun are six planets that range in size from slightly smaller than Earth to about the size of Neptune. Several of these planets fall within the star's "Goldilocks" zone, neither too hot from proximity to the star nor too cold from being too far. If a planet is too hot, all water would be steam but if its too cold then it would be ice, neither of which can support life. Luckily, a group of astronomers from the National Centre for Scientific Research in France believe that the fourth planet - unimaginatively labeled Gliese 581d - is just right.

"With a dense carbon dioxide atmosphere - a likely scenario on such a large planet - the climate of Gliese 581d is not only stable against collapse but warm enough to have oceans, clouds and rainfall," the report said.

Last September, a group from Australia announced the discovery of a sixth plant in the Gliese 581 system that also fell within the habitable zone. That planet was dubbed Zarmina's World after the lead researcher's wife, but its existence is still in question.

581d is much bigger than Zarmina - roughly 7 times Earth's mass - and the French have used computational models to estimate that its thick atmosphere would be able to retain heat but would result in conditions very different than our home planet.

"The denser air and thick clouds would keep the surface in a perpetual murky red twilight, and its large mass means that surface gravity would be around double that on Earth," the French statement read.

The bad news is that even though the Gliese 581 is fairly close to Earth, cosmically speaking, it would still take a very long time for us to get there. Even if we could travel at light speed, which last I checked was still technically impossible due to Einstein's little theory, it would still take us 20 years to reach the Gliese 581 system. If we used the same technology that was used to launch the shuttle Endeavor this week, the journey to Gliese would take almost 300,000 years.

Better pack some beef jerky!

Source: Cosmos Magazine [http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/4321/first-habitable-exoplanet-confirmed]

(Image [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gliese_581_-_2010.jpg])

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Dyp100

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Jul 14, 2009
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Nice. Shame the gravity and atmosphere are slightly horrible to us, but I'm sure if we somehow end up there we'd be fine somehow.

Also, it's not impossible, due to quantum physics and all that jazz. Bloody science is always changing it's view, though faster than light is always an odd topic to be poking around.
 

Ghengis John

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Dec 16, 2007
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In further news, croissants and cigarettes reached an all-time market high, as French colonists stockpile in preparation for their long journey to Gliese 581d.
 

Spaghetti

Goes Well With Pesto
Sep 2, 2009
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Greg Tito said:
If we used the same technology that was used to launch the shuttle Endeavor this week, the journey to Gliese would take almost 300,000 years.
Clearly someone isn't thinking with Portals...

OT: Well this is somewhat awesome. Cool that such a place might actually exist. Shame it will take the aformentioned long time to get there.
 

Lazarus Long

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Nov 20, 2008
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I think the bigger news is that if it could support life, it could have evolved it. The bad news: With twice Earth gravity, our future alien overlords would be built like friggin' tanks. The good news: Presumably, they wouldn't be able to breathe our atmosphere if they invade before we turn it into theirs.
 

ScoopMeister

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Mar 12, 2011
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Finally! I knew the French would do something useful that didn't involve any bread-based foodstuffs eventually!
 

Dimitriov

The end is nigh.
May 24, 2010
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When you consider that our looking at planets in other solar systems has only just begun, these kind of results (and so close!) really do suggest that we might not be so singular as we have thought in the past.
 

Shameless

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Jun 28, 2010
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I believe we're going to build colonies someday, however I doubt we all are going to live and see it.

Also



Seriously how can Captcha read my mind ?!
 
Feb 13, 2008
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In related news, the French have already surrendered to them.

/innocentlook

(@Eleima's gonna kill me ;))

Wasn't Zaphod's Palace built on the Planet France in H2G2?
 

MarsProbe

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Dec 13, 2008
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KnowYourOnion said:
Wow that's stupidly close..........I mean twenty light years is nothing.
Agreed. It's time for all of humanity to put aside its petty differences and pool our resources in order to reach Gliese 581. There's an Asari-like race out there somewhere! You've got one hour - solve it!
 

Hawk of Battle

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Feb 28, 2009
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Didn't we discover this like... 6 months ago? I distinctly remember hearing the name Gleise 581 a while ago and about it being habitable. Maybe it was only potentially habital 6 months ago, but now they've confirmed it? Still, either way, WOOT for science!

Now to work on FTL drives.

EDIT; Ah yeah, maybe I should read the article without skimming next time. Planet was FOUND in septembter, and found to be in goldilocks zone. Now confirmed to be viable for life. Excellent.
 

emeraldrafael

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Jul 17, 2010
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double earth's gravity.

You know, earth doesnt have that strong of a gravity to begin with, but I think our bodies would be severely hurt if we just went there and started populating.
 

artanis_neravar

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Apr 18, 2011
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Several of these planets fall within the star's "Goldilocks" zone, neither too hot from proximity to the star nor too cold from being too far. If a planet is too hot, all water would be steam but if its too cold then it would be ice, neither of which can support life.
It should read human life, people should stop assuming that because life evolved on Earth, this exact set up is the only way life can thrive, instead the thought process should be life evolved in this particular way because of these particular set up
 

Lt. Vinciti

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Nov 5, 2009
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What is the point....

We wont be reaching that in this life time...or the next several thousand+ nexts
 

Laser Priest

A Magpie Among Crows
Mar 24, 2011
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Dear god, I hope we're beginning the back story for every sci-fi horror/thriller ever.