A new planet, or exoplanet, has been discovered this year that may support life. A tiny red star known as Gliese 581 has been a prime target of planet seekers for 11 years depending on the probability an Earthlike exoplanet might be found there. Wednesday they announced the discovery of Gliese 581g, a rocky planet orbiting its star within the “Goldilocks zone,” a distance considered “just right” for water to exist for the development of organic life.
The Goldilocks zone where we can go
The new planet discovered in 2010, Gliese 581g, was announced by Steven S. Vogt of the University of California, Santa Cruz and R. Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Gliese, pronounced GLEE-za, 581g orbits a dim red star called Gliese 581 with a distance of about 14 million miles once each 37 days, as outlined by the NY Times. Water and life can exist on this planet because it is within the best place in the Goldilocks zone. Evidently it is the perfect temperature meaning it is not too hot or too cold and can sustain life. Fliese 581g has chances that “are almost 100 percent” of having life on it. This is what Vogt said.
The reasons why existence can exist on Gliese 581g
We know the star, Gliese 581, it only a third the size of the sun however is one hundred times brighter. It has six known exoplanets orbiting it, including Gliese 581g. The Goldilocks zone has two of the planets orbiting Gliese 581 in it, reports Scientific Americans. Gliese 581g, about three times the mass of Earth, orbits between those worlds. It is the first Goldilocks exoplanet to be found. It doesn’t appear to be like Earth. It is star only has about half the planet facing it at any given time. Gliese 581g is like the moon as it is “tidally locked” in this way. On the Fahrenheit system, the planet is expected to have temperatures between negative 31 and 158 on the side that faces the sun. Somewhere in between permanent daylight and permanent night, which Vogt called “eco-longitudes,” some form of life could become established.
In 2010, planets are being discovered
We found Gliese 581g by using the radial velocity technique. This is also called the “wobble,” technique sometimes. The wobble technique allows scientists to measure a gravitational pull that exoplanets give stars during orbit, reports the Los Angeles Times. The planet hunters also made precise brightness measurements, confirming the specific wobbles in Gliese 581 were triggered by Gliese 581g, not by any activity within the star itself.
Articles cited
New York Times
nytimes.com/2010/09/30/science/space/30planet.html?_r=1 and ref=science
Scientific American
scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=habitable-exoplanet-gliese-581
Los Angeles times
latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-earth-like-planet,,7897054.story
