Thursday, October 7, 2010

Earthlike planet discovered where factors may have existence

Existence may exist on one of the latest planets to be discovered outside the solar system in 2010. Gliese 581, a small red star about 20 light years away from Earth, has been a prime target for planet seekers for the last 11 years. With the announcement Wednesday of the discovery of Gliese 581g, their hunch appears to be confirmed as the world seems to reside at a distance from its sun where factors may have developed to sustain life called the “Goldilocks zone.” Resource for this article – New planet discovered in 2010 lies in Goldilocks zone for life by Personal Money Store.

Make our route to discover the Goldilocks zone

The new planet found in 2010, Gliese 581g, was announced by Steven S. Vogt of the University of California, Santa Cruz and R. Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. As reported in the New York Times, Gliese (GLEE-za) 581g orbits Gliese 581, a dim red star, once every 37 days at a distance of about 14 million miles. Scientists say that is the sweet spot of the Goldilocks zone, where heat from the star is not too hot, not too cold, for water to exist in liquid form on the surface. Fliese 581g has chances that “are almost 100 percent” of having life on it. This is what Vogt said.

Gliese 581g factors generating it possible to support life

Gliese 581 is a star that is a hundred times brighter than the sun when being about a 3rd the size of it that has Gliese 581g as one of six planets orbiting it. A report on two of the Gliese 581 planets comes from Scientific Americans. It says the Goldilocks zone has these two planets in it. Gliese 581g, about three times the mass of Earth, orbits between those worlds. This is the first exoplanet found in the Goldilocks zone. It does not have many similarities with Earth. There are a few differences. It’s star only has about half the planet facing it at any given time. Gliese 581g is like the moon as it is “tidally locked” in this way. On the Fahrenheit system, the planet is expected to have temperatures between negative 31 and 158 on the side that faces the sun. Vogt explained that life could exist in the world. The only thing that would need to be worked with would be the “eco-longitudes” which is the permanent day and night on the plan! et.

Finding exoplanets in only 2010

We discovered Gliese 581g by using the radial velocity technique. This is also called the “wobble,” technique sometimes. As explained within the Los Angeles Times, the wobble technique detects exoplanets 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



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