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.

Technorati Tags: exoplanets, Gliese 581

A thought-provoking title from O’Reilly. I see this in the light of Thomas Homer-Dixon’s THE UPSIDE OF DOWN: CATASTROPHE, CREATIVITY, AND THE RENEWAL OF CIVILIZATION, which (madly simplifying) argues that our civilization is becoming overly complex, energy-dependent, and, therefore fragile. What I feel is missing from the description below is the thought that it is fully natural for human beings to be technological. There is a population of 6.5 billion naked apes on the planet who have appropriated between 4 and 40% of the world’s net primary productivity (Vitousek, 1986) using technology over a period of thousands of years (Penniman, PLOWS, PLAGUES, AND PETROLEUM). We do not just “consume” technology; we build our habitat using technology.

I feel sure Talbott has an interesting take on this situation; I look forward to reading his book.

In Devices of the Soul, Steve Talbott challenges readers to critically examine society’s ever-increasing detachment from its physical surroundings and reflect on its growing dependence on techno-wizardry. Why? In an era when 65 percent of American consumers spend more time with their PCs than with their loved ones, according to a recent study, Talbott insists something vital is slipping away–our Selves, the human spirit from which technology stems.

“Self-forgetfulness is the reigning temptation of the technological era. This is why we so readily give our assent to the absurd proposition that a computer can add two plus two, despite the obvious fact that it can do nothing of the sort-not if we have in mind anything remotely resembling what we do when we add numbers,” writes Talbott. “In the computer’s case, the mechanics of addition involve no motivation, no consciousness of the task, no mobilization of the will, no metabolic activity, no imagination. And its performance brings neither the satisfaction of accomplishment nor the strengthening of practical skills and cognitive capacities.”

Technorati Tags: O’Reilly, technology