Existence may exist on one of the most recent planets to be found outside the solar system in 2010. For 11 years, planet hunters have been monitoring a red dwarf star called Gliese 581 about 20 light years away suspected of harboring an Earthlike planet. A team of astronomers announced Wednesday that they had hit pay-dirt with the discovery of Gliese 581g, an Earthlike planet in the star’s “Goldilocks zone,” an orbital distance where temperatures are considered suitable for life.
Welcome to the Goldilocks zone
The new planet discovered this year, 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. The NY Times reports that Gliese 581g (GLEE-za) makes an orbit every 37 days with a 14 million mile distance. It orbits the dim red star known as Gliese 581. Water and life can exist on this world because it is in the best place in the Goldilocks zone. Evidently it is the perfect temperature meaning it isn’t too hot or too cold and can sustain life. Vogt said the chances “are almost 100 percent” that there is life on Gliese 581g.
The factors why life can survive on Gliese 581g
We know that the star, Gliese 581, it only a third the size of the sun but 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. Those worlds have Gliese 581g orbiting between them. It is known to be about three times as large as planet earth is. This is the first exoplanet discovered within the Goldilocks zone. It does not have numerous similarities with Earth. There are a couple of differences. The planet hunter’s suspect Gliese 581g is “tidally locked,” which means only one side faces its star, like the moon does to Earth. 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.
What exoplanets in 2010 are discovered
We discovered Gliese 581g by using the radial velocity technique. This is also called the “wobble,” technique sometimes. The Los Angeles Times explains how the wobble technique works. It involves detecting a gravitational pull during orbit the world has on the sun. 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.
Information from
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
