Habitable Planet outside fo the solar system

[cubsfan6506]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070425/ap_on_sc/habitable_planet

But the euros discovered.

 

[Babbler]

Possibly habitable.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

That is so cool.

 

[Bill3000]

I remember creating a C program calculating the habitable zone of a star...

Really cool, of course.

 

[bhsup]

Wonderful discovery, and kudos to the fine European team for finding it!

 

[cubsfan6506]

Yeah i no where's are nasa funding going. It really seams like euros are making useful strides where americans make poinless strides like sending people to nearyl unhabitbal mars.

 

[taper]

Only 20 lightyears away, that's within a human life's length for a relativistic space craft. Now we just have to figure out how to build one, how to power it, how to stop it, how to keep people alive in space for a few years, and we can colonize a maybe livable planet!

 

[Bast]

Great find, this planet is what our Earth will probably look like when our Sun becomes a red dwarf. We should definitely explore this space more.

 

[Bast]

Only 20 lightyears away, that's within a human life's length for a relativistic space craft. Now we just have to figure out how to build one, how to power it, how to stop it, how to keep people alive in space for a few years, and we can colonize a maybe livable planet!

If it's circling a red dwarf, I'm not so sure it'll be so habitable now.

 

[Perfection]

Great find, this planet is what our Earth will probably look like when our Sun becomes a red dwarf. We should definitely explore this space more.

Uh, the sun will become a red giant, not a red dwarf. A red giant is a puffed out medium mass star, a red dwarf is a little bitty low mass star, they're not the same thing.

 

[Cuivienen]

If it's circling a red dwarf, I'm not so sure it'll be so habitable now.

It's very close-in with temperatures in the same range as Earth (mean temperature between 0 and 40 Celsius they say in the article). Since the start is a red dwarf, this probably means its about as far away from the star as Mercury is from the Sun.

 

[Winner]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070425/ap_on_sc/habitable_planet

But the euros discovered.

So what? Is this a race or what?

On the topic:

this IS important. If red dwarfs indeed have planets that could support Earth-type life forms, there is a huge chance there are millions of them in our Galaxy, since red dwarfs make up for about 80% of the 100 billion stars.

Sure, such planets would definitely not be a nice place to live: one side contantly faces the sun and the other one remains in perpetual darkness. Such planets would have to have thicker atmospheres, because if they didn't, all the water would freeze on the dark side.
The middle of the "sunshine side" would be very hot, odds are a huge hurricane would form there with constant torrential rains and strong winds.
Red dwarfs are also flare stars, which means they bombard their planets with a strong UV radiation once in a while. Life would have to evolve means how to survive that.

On the other hand, red dwarfs have incredibly long lives. Our sun is about 5 billion years old and it will remain a main sequence star for about another 4-5 billion. But red dwarfs remain stable for perhaps 80 billion years. Life would have enough time to evolve on any habitable planet near a red dwarf.

 

[Leifmk]

Sure, such planets would definitely not be a nice place to live: one side contantly faces the sun and the other one remains in perpetual darkness.

While close-orbiting planets of red dwarf stars are likely to be tidally locked to their primary, there are other possibilities -- they could be locked in a tidal resonance, like Mercury (three rotations per two orbits), or they could be like our Moon (orbiting a larger planet, and tidally locked to that instead of the star).

 

[Bast]

Uh, the sun will become a red giant, not a red dwarf. A red giant is a puffed out medium mass star, a red dwarf is a little bitty low mass star, they're not the same thing.

Yes, I realize that. I was talking about a 'white' dwarf. The sun will become a white dwarf after becoming a red giant. I made the mistake between white and red dwarves.

 

[Ball Lightning]

There will be many near habitable planets and most will be that, we need to hope that we can find 5 more to sustain our selves.

 

[Winner]

While close-orbiting planets of red dwarf stars are likely to be tidally locked to their primary, there are other possibilities -- they could be locked in a tidal resonance, like Mercury (three rotations per two orbits), or they could be like our Moon (orbiting a larger planet, and tidally locked to that instead of the star).

Sure, it's possible. The one thing we don't know for certain is if gas giants can have Earth-sized moons. There is a hypothesis that there is a correlation between the gas giant's mass and the size of its moons.

 

[Winner]

There will be many near habitable planets and most will be that, we need to hope that we can find 5 more to sustain our selves.

Even if we learned tomorrow, that there is an Earth twin orbiting Alpha Centauri A, we wouldn't have any means how to get there. Not in next... 200 years (OK, I know, I am an optimist).

 

[Ball Lightning]

Even if we learned tomorrow, that there is an Earth twin orbiting Alpha Centauri A, we wouldn't have any means how to get there. Not in next... 200 years (OK, I know, I am an optimist).

I totally agree, its for when we've fixed the world and then destroyed it again.

 

[Leifmk]

Sure, it's possible. The one thing we don't know for certain is if gas giants can have Earth-sized moons. There is a hypothesis that there is a correlation between the gas giant's mass and the size of its moons.

Or, for that matter, there could be an Earth-sized planet, tidally locked to a Moon-sized satellite. This will happen to Earth eventually -- or rather, it would, if the Sun lived long enough -- in a red dwarf system, there will be much more time for things like that to happen.

 

[Winner]

Or, for that matter, there could be an Earth-sized planet, tidally locked to a Moon-sized satellite. This will happen to Earth eventually -- or rather, it would, if the Sun lived long enough -- in a red dwarf system, there will be much more time for things like that to happen.

Still, I probably wouldn't like the red light, you know. It's kinda creepy