Gliese 581 c

[Bill Morris]

Wikipedia has a nice article about Gliese 581 c, a planet about 20 light years away with average temperature and size calculated to be similar to Earth's. It orbits a cooler sun every 13 days, and that sun is not a flare star, making Gliese 581 c a possible M-class planet, although the liklihood of its being tidally locked could spoil that. Its discovery was announced last April.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_581c

 

[Chaos Descending]

Neato.

 

[Brent]

let's go there

 

[watermelony2k]

20 lightyears isn't that far away astronomically speaking. If we ever get close-to-light or FTL going, that'll be a location to check out for sure.

 

[MIB]

Even if the planet is tidally locked, if it has sufficient quantities of CO2 in it's atmosphere, heat from the hot side of the planet can bleed off into the cold side and a moderate temperature equilibrium can be achieved. Thus life would still be a possability. Even complex life.

 

[Buck Rogers]

has anybody have any real links to the data on Gliese 581c,because sometimes Wikipedia can have false reports.

I just wanted be sure of the data explaining the orbit,planetary conditions etc.

Signed
Buck Rogers

 

[Bill Morris]

Here are some more links:

http://obswww.unige.ch/exoplanets/gl581.html

But the Wikipedia also has a list of NASA's top 100 target stars to check out when and if the Terrestrial Planet Finder becomes operational, meaning stars within 70 light-years that have habitable zones that could suppport life if they have rocky planets within the right range of size, etc. orbiting within the such zones. And flare stars (which have large solar flares that could destroy life on such planets) are not included on the list. So there could be quite a few life-bearing planets within just 70 light-years from Earth. There just isn't funding right now to put this system (which can pick out the light from planets while masking out the light from their stars) into operation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_Planet_Finder