Exoplanet near Gliese 581 star 'could host life'

[n2doc]

A red dwarf star 20 light-years away is again providing hints that it hosts the first definitively habitable planet outside our Solar System.

The planet Gliese 581d is at the colder outer edge of the "Goldilocks zone" in which liquid water can be sustained.

Now a study in Astrophysical Journal Letters suggests its atmosphere may keep things warm enough for water.

The solar system also hosts another contender for habitability, unconfirmed planet Gliese 581g announced in 2010.

more
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13423085

[leveymg]

1. The human race needs some distant goal posts and motivation.

Otherwise, I am afraid we might just blow it. But, we're not quite evolved enough from locust colonizers at this point. Whatever you may think of Avatar, that film made that point very clear.

[The Nexus]

6. science Fiction nt

[The Doctor.]

9. The movie? Yes. Its point, no.

Or were you referring to something else.

[roguevalley]

10. I hear they circle their sun gigantically fast. I love the information

they are putting out about this planet. Good fodder for fan fic.

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. How scientists spotted 'mysterious pulse of light' from direction of newly-discovered '2nd Earth' tw

An astronomer picked up a mysterious pulse of light coming from the direction of the newly discovered Earth-like planet almost two years ago, it has emerged.
Dr Ragbir Bhathal, a scientist at the University of Western Sydney, picked up the odd signal in December 2008, long before it was announced that the star Gliese 581 has habitable planets in orbit around it.
A member of the Australian chapter of SETI, the organisation that looks for communication from distant planets, Dr Bhathal had been sweeping the skies when he discovered a 'suspicious' signal from an area of the galaxy that holds the newly-discovered Gliese 581g.
The remarkable coincidence adds another layer of mystery to the announcement last night that scientists had discovered another planet in the system: Gliese 581g - the most Earth-like planet ever found.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1316538/Gliese-581g-mystery-Scientist-spotted-mysterious-pulse-light-direction-newEarth-planet-year.html#ixzz1McUSwoH9

[LongTomH]

4. The problem is...............

......that this signal did not repeat for Dr. Bhathal, or any other SETI researcher, much like the famed WOW Signal of 1977. To be confirmed as a signal from Extraterrestrial Intelligence, any signal, radio or light, will have to be confirmed independently by astronomers at other observatories. I understand there are plenty of radio 'events' that are: 1) narrow-band, 2) in the right range of frequencies and 3) well above the cosmic background; but, none has, as yet, been repeated and confirmed.

Edited to add: Here's an article by SETI Institute's Dr.Seth Shostak on the WOW signal.

[Phoonzang]

3. They're really going to have to make up their minds about Gliese 581

at some point. They've been going back and forth on whether there's potentially habitable planets there for years. Next week there'll be a study refuting this one.

[bananas]

11. Schroedingers Planet

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Gliese 581, I am not surprised

that seems to be a prime candidate and has been for a while... COOL

[truedelphi]

7. You almost make it sound like

You've been there?

Any cool recommendations? Favorite restaurants? Spas? Hotels on the beach?

Curious minds wanna know.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Do you have an IPAD\ IPOD?

Exoplanet... cool app if you are interested in these things.

Also been following this for years... and exobiologists have marked that system as a good candidate since the star is actually a solar analog.

[laconicsax]

12. Another article on this mentions the other possibility...

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/46001

The team admits, however, that conditions on Gliese 581d could be very different to that described in the simulations. The exoplanet may have little or no atmosphere, thanks to a fierce stellar wind from Gliese 581 during its early years. Alternatively, Gliese 581d could have a thick layer of hydrogen and helium in its atmosphere, which would lead to a much less-hospitable climate.

To gain a better understanding of the exoplanet's atmosphere, the team has come up with a wish list of spectroscopy measurements of the exoplanet's atmosphere that it hopes will be performed by astronomers in the future. Although the researchers believe that the measurements are beyond the capability of current ground- and space-based telescopes, the exoplanet's close proximity to Earth means that the next generation of instruments could shed more light on Gliese 581d.

So it could definitely support life, but then it might definitely not.