News in Science - New Earth-like planet ‘habitable’ - 25/04/2007
Astronomers say they have found the first Earth-sized world circling its mother star at a distance suitable for life.It also has good prospects for liquid surface water, believed to be a key ingredient for life.
“This planet will most probably be a very important target of the future space missions dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life,” says Dr Xavier Delfosse, with the Grenoble Astrophysical Laboratory in France.
It will be years before more sensitive instruments are developed to glean additional clues about whether life exists on the planet.
Xavier Bonfils, an astronomer with the Lisbon Astronomical Observatory in Portugal says:
“It is not possible with current telescopes and instruments yet. But in the next decade, we may have the tools to answer this question.”
The planet, which is about 50% larger than Earth, circles a star in the constellation Libra known as Gliese 581, about 20.5 light-years away.
Astronomers have previously found a Neptune-sized world circling Gliese 581, as well as strong evidence for a third planet about eight times the mass of Earth.
The new planet, which is the smallest planet beyond our solar system found to date, circles its star 14 times closer than Earth orbits the Sun.
But because Gliese 581 is smaller and colder than our Sun, the system’s so-called habitability zone, where liquid water and thus life is possible, is closer to the mother star than in our solar system.
Astronomers estimate the mean temperature of the newly discovered planet to be 0-40°C.Lead researcher Dr Stephane Udry with Switzerland’s Geneva Observatory says:
“Water would be liquid. Models predict that the planet should be either rocky, like our Earth, or covered with oceans.“
One thought flashed through my mind when I read this: Thank God.
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