new planet?

Question

What do you think about the finding of a new planet like ours? Whats next???

Answer 1

Its not that much like ours, its more massive than Earth, in orbit very close to its red dwarf star so it probably shows one face to its star (like the moon shows just one face to the Earth). Its not likely to have liquid water on the sunlit side, and probably not enough atmosphere to keep the dark side warm enough to keep water liquid.
I think its great that technology and processes have evolved to the point they can find these smaller planets in orbit around other stars (up until this one, all they were able to find were Saturn-sized and larger worlds).

Answer 2

The new planet was discovered by the wobble it causes in its home star’s motion as it orbits, using the method by which most of the known exo-planets have been discovered. Dr. Udry’s team used an advanced spectrograph on a 141-inch-diameter telescope at the European observatory in La Silla, Chile.

The planet, Gliese 581c, circles the star every 13 days at a distance of about seven million miles. According to models of planet formation developed by Dr. Sasselov and his colleagues, such a planet should be about half again as large as the Earth and composed of rock and water, what the astronomers now call a “super Earth.”

The most exciting part of the find, Dr. Sasselov said, is that it “basically tells you these kinds of planets are very common.” Because they could stay geologically active for billions of years, he said he suspected that such planets could be even more congenial for life than Earth. Although the new planet is much closer to its star than Earth is to the Sun, the red dwarf Gliese 581 is only about a hundredth as luminous as the Sun. So seven million miles is a comfortable huddling distance.

How hot the planet gets, Dr. Udry said, depends on how much light the planet reflects, its albedo. Using the Earth and Venus as two extreme examples, he estimated that temperatures on the surface of the planet should be in the range of 0 degrees to 40 degrees centigrade.

Answer 3

THe newest planet observed by NASA is CX-118. This planet rotates VERTICALLY around the sun. While the other 8 planets rotate horizontally around the sun, the planet of CX-118 rotates the sun vertically. The distance of this planet would be the equivalent of the planet Mars to the (previous planet) of pluto.

Answer 4

Well I thought that was a pretty neat thing. The fact that it is 120 Trillion Miles away does not seem to bother anyone.

Next we will find more of the same... I look forward to it.

Answer 5

It is of no consequence to our near or the distant future. If there is another universe similar to the earth, and in case we have colonist ambitions, we should just forget it. God cannot allow us to go and contaminate another of his Aden the way we've done to the earth.

Answer 6

another new planet like ours only nearer and a ship to get us there.

Answer 7

then we would have one more to waste