Gliese 581: New Possibly Habitable Planet Discovered

By Heather B on September 30th, 2010

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Astronomers have discovered a possibly Earth-like planet in a star system reportedly 20 light years away – apparently that’s pretty close in galactic terms.

The planet is located in the Gliese 581 star system, in the “Goldiclocks zone” an area where planets can can support liquid water on their surface.  Reportedly, this new planet is approximately three times the size of the earth.

But before you sell your house to start fresh in this galaxy far far away, there are a few problems that Bad Astronomy points out which could make the new planet uninhabitable.

It’s days are the same length as its years (37 Earth days) and the same side of the planet is always facing towards the sun, making things a bit dicey for habitability.  Unless of course you’re a vampire, or on the flip side, someone who is afraid of the dark.

However, if the planet has an atmosphere that could give it a more pleasant climate (the hot air form the day side will flow over to the night side and vice versa).  Though it is still not known whether or not the planet has an atmosphere at all.

Still, the discovery of this new planet that shares some likeness to Earth just 20 light years away means that it is likely that other Earth-like planets exist in our galaxy.  And, Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy is excited:

“So we don’t know if this planet is all that much like Earth — the surface gravity may be quite high if it’s dense and small, for example, or it may not have any air, or it may have a thick atmosphere like Venus — but what it’s telling us is that smaller, lower mass planets at the right distance from their star for liquid water are almost certainly common in the galaxy. And that’s big enough news for me.”

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