about the new planet?

Question

is it really discovered.............?

Answer 1

Yes, it was found on Shakespeare's birthday 23rd April 2007.

It is 20.4 light years away in the constellation Libra. It is the 87th closest star system to us,

The planet is called Glese 581c. What is unusual about it, amongst the 230+ planets we have found orbiting other stars is

a) it is a rocky terrestrial planet not a gas giant

b) it is in the habitable zone i.e. with a temperature range at which water would be a liquid not ice. This is felt to be essential if it is to harbour life.

c) it has a radius 1.5 times that of earth (and a mass 5 x earth), the smallest yet,

(d) It orbirs very close to its star (as the star, a red dwarf, is much cooler than our Sun, the planet needs to be nearer in to be warm enough to be habitable) and its year is a mere 13 Earth days in length.

There are two other planets in the same stellar system, one even further in (Gliese 581 b) a Neptune-sized planet of 17 Earth masses found in 2005 and one further out (Gliese 581 d) a planet of 8 Earth masses found in 2007.

The big question marks are:

(a) it is big enough to retain an atmosphere but is it breathable by humans?

(b) does it actually have (a plentiful supply of) water?

(c) how would we get there? (our present fastest rockets available would take 300,000 years)

Many of the questions people will inevitably ask can only be answered when we can send an unmanned probe there. Meanwhile other planets will be found even nearer to us. (We know of a planet 10.5 light years away around Epsilon Eridani (the 9th nearest star) and 3 around Gliese 876, 15 light years away

Answer 2

If you mean the one orbiting Gliese yes. The only problem is that it's 25 light years away (800,000 years at shuttle speeds) and all we really know is that it has about 5 times the mass of earth and it's around the same temperature. It may have no atmosphere or might be covered in sulfuric acid. We can't tell.

Answer 3

Yes

Answer 4

yes! it has been discovered.....