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Title: New Planet Post by: TELLE on April 25, 2007, 07:40:30 PM http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C04%5C26%5Cstory_26-4-2007_pg1_2
Today's news about the discovery by astronomers of an Earth-like planet orbiting a Red Dwarf star caps a week of Superman-rleated scientific discoveries. I think this planet, with gravity, water, and temperatures similar to Earth, is very exciting and will probably be very exciting for all science fiction fans and fans of Superman. We are living in interesting times! Quote European astronomers have spotted what they say is the most Earth-like planet yet outside our solar system, with balmy temperatures that could support water and, potentially, life. They have not directly seen the planet, orbiting a red dwarf star called Gliese 581. But measurements of the star suggest that a planet not much larger than the Earth is pulling on it, the researchers say in a letter to the editor of the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. “This one is the first one that is at the same time probably rocky, with water, and in a zone close to the star where the water could exist in liquid form,” said Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland, who led the study. “We have estimated that the mean temperature of this super-Earth lies between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius, and water would thus be liquid.” Most of the 200 or so planets that have been spotted outside this solar system have been gas giants like Jupiter. But this one is small. “Its radius should be only 1.5 times the Earth’s radius, and models predict that the planet should be either rocky, like our Earth, or covered with oceans,” Udry said in a telephone interview. It appears to have a mass five times that of Earth’s. “Because of its temperature and relative proximity, this planet will most probably be a very important target of the future space missions dedicated to the search for extra-terrestrial life,” Xavier Delfosse, a member of the team from Grenoble University in France, said in a statement. “On the treasure map of the universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X.” Gliese 581 is among the 100 closest stars to Earth, just 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra. It is smaller and dimmer than the sun, so the planet can be close to it and yet not be overheated. “These low-mass stars are the ones where we are going to be able to discover planets in the habitable zone first,” said planet-hunter David Bennett, who was not involved in the research. reuters Title: Re: New Planet Post by: Super Monkey on April 25, 2007, 09:10:14 PM I hope they call it Krypton :)
Title: Re: New Planet Post by: jamespup on April 25, 2007, 11:37:50 PM They'll probably call it Jadar
Title: Re: New Planet Post by: TELLE on April 26, 2007, 01:48:01 AM Do I hear a Daxam?
Title: Re: New Planet Post by: Permanus on April 26, 2007, 03:35:30 AM They'll probably call it Jadar It took me about five minutes to stop giggling when I read this. Title: Re: New Planet Post by: TELLE on May 08, 2007, 06:40:16 PM Now a new exploding star:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article1762914.ece |