Earth-like planet found.

[panamania79 2]

HATFIELD, England – In the search for Earth-like planets, astronomers zeroed in Tuesday on two places that look awfully familiar to home. One is close to the right size. The other is in the right place. European researchers said they not only found the smallest exoplanet ever, called Gliese 581 e, but realized that a neighboring planet discovered earlier, Gliese 581 d, was in the prime habitable zone for potential life.

"The Holy Grail of current exoplanet research is the detection of a rocky, Earth-like planet in the 'habitable zone,'" said Michel Mayor, an astrophysicist at Geneva University in Switzerland.

An American expert called the discovery of the tiny planet "extraordinary."

Gliese 581 e is only 1.9 times the size of Earth — while previous planets found outside our solar system are closer to the size of massive Jupiter, which NASA says could swallow more than 1,000 Earths.

Gliese 581 e sits close to the nearest star, making it too hot to support life. Still, Mayor said its discovery in a solar system 20 1/2 light years away from Earth is a "good example that we are progressing in the detection of Earth-like planets."

Scientists also discovered that the orbit of planet Gliese 581 d, which was found in 2007, was located within the "habitable zone" — a region around a sun-like star that would allow water to be liquid on the planet's surface, Mayor said.

He spoke at a news conference Tuesday at the University of Hertfordshire during the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science.

Gliese 581 d is probably too large to be made only of rocky material, fellow astronomer and team member Stephane Udry said, adding it was possible the planet had a "large and deep" ocean.

"It is the first serious 'water-world' candidate," Udry said.

Mayor's main planet-hunting competitor, Geoff Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley, praised the find of Gliese 581 e as "the most exciting discovery" so far of exoplanets — planets outside our solar system.

"This discovery is absolutely extraordinary," Marcy told The Associated Press by e-mail, calling the discoveries a significant step in the search for Earth-like planets.

While Gliese 581 e is too hot for life "it shows that nature makes such small planets, probably in large numbers," Marcy commented. "Surely the galaxy contains tens of billions of planets like the small, Earth-mass one announced here."

Nearly 350 planets have been found outside our solar system, but so far nearly every one of them was found to be extremely unlikely to harbor life.

Most were too close or too far from their sun, making them too hot or too cold for life. Others were too big and likely to be uninhabitable gas giants like Jupiter. Those that are too small are highly difficult to detect in the first place.

Both Gliese 581 d and Gliese 581 e are located in constellation Libra and orbit around Gliese 581.

Like other planets circling that star — scientists have discovered four so far — Gliese 581 e was found using the European Southern Observatory's telescope in La Silla, Chile.

The telescope has a special instrument which splits light to find wobbles in different wavelengths. Those wobbles can reveal the existence of other worlds.

"It is great work and shows the potential of this detection method," said Lisa Kaltenegger, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

___

Associated Press Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report from Washington.

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[Niels Bohr 72]

These astronomers should invest more time focusing on building super high speed space travel vehicles so they can explore space instead of waiting for some engineer to come up with a vehicle.

[Nagishkaw 510]

Better get busy, then. They are waiting for you.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

These astronomers should invest more time focusing on building super high speed space travel vehicles so they can explore space instead of waiting for some engineer to come up with a vehicle.

I think the physicists need to come up with some sort of wormhole engine before they can think about that. There is a prototype ion drives in the works at the moment but Star Trek is still a few centuries off (at best)

[Niels Bohr 72]

I'm familiar with those ion thrusters.

The physicist today aren't coming up with major theory to revolutionize the world like the days of Bohr, Einstein, Eddington, Schrondinger, Planck, etc...of the early 1900s. In fact, most physics used in today technology all were derived from these people's research.

Looks like the advancement of physics stopped during their time.

[_Simpson_ 250]

from what I read only 581 d has the chance of maintaining life. I read that its alot bigger which makes me think that the gravity might be a little to intense on that planet to substain life, thoughts? I know very little about these things.

I am kind of skeptical about this considering that alot of things came together to make earth work and to think we found one already, Im not so sure.

[Bobby+Umit 161]

These astronomers should invest more time focusing on building super high speed space travel vehicles so they can explore space instead of waiting for some engineer to come up with a vehicle.

wah? astronomers don't build things, they just look at the sky (well - they might build things to look at the sky though )

I would think of them as pathfinders, so when those lazy engineers (where is my flying car for frak sake) finally make something that can get up to speed, they will be able to go to places that have a chance to support our form of life.

I have seen where they want to make a very large array in space (like miles in scale), that will allow them to focus on small planets, and see plant/water/lights.

That would be something.

stupid relativity....

from what I read only 581 d has the chance of maintaining life. I read that its alot bigger which makes me think that the gravity might be a little to intense on that planet to substain life, thoughts? I know very little about these things.

I am kind of skeptical about this considering that alot of things came together to make earth work and to think we found one already, Im not so sure.

Depends what type of life your talking about.

It may be to intense for our type, but there could be other types that would work just fine in different enviroments.

Hulu the series "The Universe" - they talk about things like this - in layman terms.

[Niels Bohr 72]

These astronomers should invest more time focusing on building super high speed space travel vehicles so they can explore space instead of waiting for some engineer to come up with a vehicle.

wah? astronomers don't build things, they just look at the sky (well - they might build things to look at the sky though )

I would think of them as pathfinders, so when those lazy engineers (where is my flying car for frak sake) finally make something that can get up to speed, they will be able to go to places that have a chance to support our form of life.

I have seen where they want to make a very large array in space (like miles in scale), that will allow them to focus on small planets, and see plant/water/lights.

That would be something.

stupid relativity....

from what I read only 581 d has the chance of maintaining life. I read that its alot bigger which makes me think that the gravity might be a little to intense on that planet to substain life, thoughts? I know very little about these things.

I am kind of skeptical about this considering that alot of things came together to make earth work and to think we found one already, Im not so sure.

Depends what type of life your talking about.

It may be to intense for our type, but there could be other types that would work just fine in different enviroments.

Hulu the series "The Universe" - they talk about things like this - in layman terms.

What I was implying is for the astronomers to contribute their astro-physics skills to help engineers. Of course they don't make things. In the lab here we have mathematicians, physicists, chemists working with engineers.

[_Simpson_ 250]

These astronomers should invest more time focusing on building super high speed space travel vehicles so they can explore space instead of waiting for some engineer to come up with a vehicle.

wah? astronomers don't build things, they just look at the sky (well - they might build things to look at the sky though )

I would think of them as pathfinders, so when those lazy engineers (where is my flying car for frak sake) finally make something that can get up to speed, they will be able to go to places that have a chance to support our form of life.

I have seen where they want to make a very large array in space (like miles in scale), that will allow them to focus on small planets, and see plant/water/lights.

That would be something.

stupid relativity....

from what I read only 581 d has the chance of maintaining life. I read that its alot bigger which makes me think that the gravity might be a little to intense on that planet to substain life, thoughts? I know very little about these things.

I am kind of skeptical about this considering that alot of things came together to make earth work and to think we found one already, Im not so sure.

Depends what type of life your talking about.

It may be to intense for our type, but there could be other types that would work just fine in different enviroments.

Hulu the series "The Universe" - they talk about things like this - in layman terms.

I will have to look into it and see what the breaking point is a as far as gravity and a living organism. The Universe, ah a great series.

[alienlovechild 75]

Wouldn't be easier to get some Somalian pirates to seize an alien spacecraft rather than wait centuries to invent a warp-type engine? Reverse engine the thing a la Roswell.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Who has first dibs on colonizing it and how do we get the natives to bend over and take it?

[alienlovechild 75]

Who has first dibs on colonizing it and how do we get the natives to bend over and take it?

Mexico. They'll sneak passed the force field and take over the place like the Invasion of the Body Snatchers in burrito-shaped pods.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Who has first dibs on colonizing it and how do we get the natives to bend over and take it?

Mexico. They'll sneak passed the force field and take over the place like the Invasion of the Body Snatchers in burrito-shaped pods.

Do they even have a space program? Whoah, that was way out in left field, alien.

[Bobby+Umit 161]

Who has first dibs on colonizing it and how do we get the natives to bend over and take it?

Mexico. They'll sneak passed the force field and take over the place like the Invasion of the Body Snatchers in burrito-shaped pods.

Do they even have a space program? Whoah, that was way out in left field, alien.

Si - they have a space program

Mexico Space Program