Life may exist on one of the most recent planets to be discovered outside the solar system in 2010. Planet seekers have focused on a red dwarf star about 20 light years away called Gliese 581 which they suspected may offer a world comparable to Earth. A team of astronomers announced Wednesday that they had hit pay-dirt with the discovery of Gliese 581g, an Earthlike world in the star’s “Goldilocks zone,” an orbital distance where temperatures are considered suitable for life.
Finding the Goldilocks zone
Of the University of California, Santa Cruz, Steven S. Vogt took part in the announcement of Geliese 581g as the brand new planet found in 2010. Of the Carnegie Institute of Washington, R. Paul Butler also took place in this announcement. The New York Times reports that Gliese 581g (GLEE-za) makes an orbit every 37 days with a 14 million mile distance. It orbits the dim red star known as Gliese 581. Scientists say that is the sweet spot of the Goldilocks zone, where heat from the star isn’t too hot, not too cold, for water to survive in liquid form on the surface. When asked about life on Gliese 581g, Vogt said the chances “are almost 100 percent.”.
Gliese 581g may just have existence there
Gliese 581g is one of six known planets orbiting Gliese 581, a star about one-third the size and one-hundredth the brightness of the Sun. The Goldilocks zone has two of the planets orbiting Gliese 581 in it, reports Scientific Americans. Gliese 581g orbits between those worlds although it is three times the size of earth. This is the first exoplanet discovered within the Goldilocks zone. It doesn’t appear to be like Earth. The planet hunter’s suspect Gliese 581g is “tidally locked,” which means only one side faces its star, like the moon does to Earth. You will find comparable temperatures to our world on the planet. It is expected to be someplace between negative 31 to 158 degrees Fahrenheit. Somewhere in between permanent daylight and permanent night, which Vogt called “eco-longitudes,” some form of life could become established.
How new planets are found this year
. As explained within the Los Angeles Times, the wobble technique detects planets by measuring a barely discernible gravitational tug they give their star during orbit. The planet hunters also made precise brightness measurements, confirming that the specific wobbles in Gliese 581 were triggered by Gliese 581g, not by any activity within the star itself.
Articles cited
New York Times
nytimes.com/2010/09/30/science/space/30planet.html?_r=1 and ref=science
Scientific American
scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=habitable-exoplanet-gliese-581
Los Angeles times
latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-earth-like-planet,,7897054.story
