What you think of Gliese 581 c?

Question

It's a new planet that was discovered about 7 months ago. It is an extrasolar planet (meaning it is not in our solar system.) It, however, does orbit a smaller star than our sun but its small distance makes it a place just like earth, habitable. It's temperature is thought to be VERY close to that of our planet. The only problem is that it's 20 light years away from us which is impossible to get to, at least for now. You guys think we'll ever get there? And you think there's intelligent life on it?!!

Answer 1

I think it's great. And we don't have the telescopic power (yet!) to resolve earth-like planets. Gliese is one of the first. Very exciting. 20 light years may not be a barrier forever -- new means of propulsion other than chemical can be had -- and if we can even just achieve a fraction of lightspeed, an interstellar "ark" could be built.

I doubt if there's intelligent life on the first theoretically habitable planet practically next door. That would suggest the odds are that even our local quadrant of the galaxy would be teeming with life. It's a big universe. Even if there's only one other planet with intelligent life in the whole galaxy, there are hundreds of billions of galaxies out to the edge of the universe. And there may be infinitely more beyond that edge, but light from there hasn't had time to reach us yet.

Answer 2

Hi. The odds say no. If Earth had been discovered by a species on that planet 10,000 years ago what would they think? 100,000 years, 400,000,000 years? A mere hiccup in geological (or universal) time. Even if they came here they would not find what we would consider intelligent (technological) life. http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/press-rel/pr-2007/pr-22-07.html

Answer 3

If Earth is any guide, the most likely form of life to be on this planet would be the local version of bacteria. For most of Earth's history, the only form of life on it was bacteria and it is still the most important. Humans, trees, whales, fish, lizards, ferns and so forth are just window dressing here.

Answer 4

Gliese 581 c (IPA: /ˈgliːzə/), also unofficially known as Ymir[3], is a "super-earth" extrasolar planet orbiting the red dwarf star Gliese 581.[4] It appears to be the first terrestrial extrasolar planet discovered in the hypothetical habitable zone surrounding its star, where surface temperatures might maintain liquid water[4][5] and therefore be suitable for life as known on Earth. The planet is astronomically close, at 20.4 light years (193 trillion km or 119 trillion miles) from Earth in the direction of the constellation of Libra.[2] Its star is identified as Gliese 581 by its number in the Gliese Catalogue of Nearby Stars; with respect to Earth it is the 87th closest star system.[6]

Gliese 581 c is the first extrasolar planet believed to possibly have a surface temperature similar to that of Earth. Assuming the planet's mass is close to the lower limit determined by radial velocity measurements (the true mass is unknown), it would be the smallest extrasolar planet known around a main sequence star to date.[4]
Gliese 581 c (IPA: /ˈgliːzə/), also unofficially known as Ymir[3], is a "super-earth" extrasolar planet orbiting the red dwarf star Gliese 581.[4] It appears to be the first terrestrial extrasolar planet discovered in the hypothetical habitable zone surrounding its star, where surface temperatures might maintain liquid water[4][5] and therefore be suitable for life as known on Earth. The planet is astronomically close, at 20.4 light years (193 trillion km or 119 trillion miles) from Earth in the direction of the constellation of Libra.[2] Its star is identified as Gliese 581 by its number in the Gliese Catalogue of Nearby Stars; with respect to Earth it is the 87th closest star system.[6]

Gliese 581 c is the first extrasolar planet believed to possibly have a surface temperature similar to that of Earth. Assuming the planet's mass is close to the lower limit determined by radial velocity measurements (the true mass is unknown), it would be the smallest extrasolar planet known around a main sequence star to date.

Answer 5

I doubt intelligent life, but I'm sure that at some point, provided we all survive the climate crisis long enough, we'll develope a probe to investigate.