2007-06-03 17:59:20 · 6 answers · asked by craftyjgr 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
GLIESE 581c
This newly-discovered planet where life is thought to be feasible orbits Gliese 581, one of the nearest 100 stars to us, 20.4 light years away.
The new planet was found on 23rd April 2007 by a team led by Stephane Udry of Geneva University, The observatory they used was La Scilla, high in the Chilean Andes, where good viewing conditions would be available. (Hubble is a space-based telescope and was not used)
It is in the constellation Libra. It is the 87th closest star system to us. Its star (a Red Dwarf) is too faint to be seen with the naked eye, however. Its magnitude is 11.56.
What is unusual about Gliese 581c, amongst the 241 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 orbits 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)
(d) is the planet gravitationally locked to ts star, such that the same side of it always faces the star?
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.)
Wilhelm Gliese was a German astronomer, best known for the Gliese Catalogue of Nearby Stars that he compiled.
2007-06-03 23:51:07 · answer #1 · answered by crabapples 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
We CANNOT image earth size planet oustide of the solar system. On Hubble, even Pluto is only one pixel wide. I do hope you realize that a planet half a millon years old is totally ridiculous, ours is 4.7 BILLION years old. So, I don't know where you got your information, but you been owned. There is no planet Vulcan known to orbit Eridani A; and by the way 40 Eridani A is a triple system, that means it has 3 stars, and the primary star is 4 billon years old.
2016-05-20 22:59:57 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The other answerers are correct - Darwin 4 is fictional. It was the name of the planet in Discovery Channel's "Alien Planet" special.
There was a recent discovery of a planet that could be similar to Earth - it is known as Gliese 581 c.
2007-06-03 18:29:06 · answer #3 · answered by ryan x 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Darwin-4 is fictional... Hubble hasn't found a planet with water on it, and we probably couldn't tell if an exrasolar planet has water on it with the technology we have today.
2007-06-03 18:12:08 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Darwin - 4 is a fictional planet. There is no such planet and Hubble did not discover it.
2007-06-03 18:11:35 · answer #5 · answered by pitaboy 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋
what is the question? darwin 4 is fictional, from the book 'expedition' by wayne barlow...
2007-06-03 18:12:43 · answer #6 · answered by Piglet O 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋