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Title: New Earth-like planet discovered; Gliese 581g in 'Goldilocks zone'
Source:
Guardian News
URL Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2 ... /earth-like-planet-gliese-581g
Published: Sep 29, 2010
Author: Ian Sample
Post Date: 2010-09-29 18:30:09 by Hondo68
Keywords: Movin on up, Goldilox Zone, Lots for Sale
Views: 49423
Comments: 58
Gliese 581g in 'Goldilocks zone' of space where liquid water could exist is strong contender for a habitable world Astronomers have discovered a potentially habitable planet of similar size to Earth in orbit around a nearby star. A team of planet hunters spotted the alien world circling a red dwarf star called Gliese 581, 20 light years away. The planet is in the "Goldilocks zone" of space around a star where surface temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to form. "Our findings offer a very compelling case for a potentially habitable planet," said Steven Vogt, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "The fact that we were able to detect this planet so quickly and so nearby tells us that planets like this must be really common." If confirmed, the planet would be the most Earth-like that has ever been discovered in another solar system and the first strong contender for a habitable one. More than 400 exoplanets have been discovered by astronomers, but most are gas giants, like Jupiter, that would be inhospitable to life as we know it. Astronomers used the Keck telescope in Hawaii to study the movement of Gliese 581 in exquisite detail and from their observations inferred the presence of a number of orbiting planets. The team report two new planets in the Astrophysical Journal, bringing the total number known to be circling the star to six. One of the planets, named Gliese 581g, has a mass of three to four times that of Earth and takes 37 days to orbit the star. Astronomers believe it is a rocky planet with enough gravity to retain an atmosphere. Unlike the previously discovered planets, Gliese 581g lies squarely in the region of space were life can thrive. "We had planets on both sides of the habitable zone — one too hot and one too cold — and now we have one in the middle that's just right," Vogt said. One side of the planet is always facing the star, much as one side of the moon constantly faces Earth. This means that the far side of the planet is constantly in darkness. The most habitable region of the planet would be the line between the light and dark regions. "Any emerging life forms would have a wide range of stable climates to choose from and to evolve around, depending on their longitude," Vogt said. The average temperature on the planet is estimated to be between -31 to -12C, but the ground temperature would vary from blazing hot on the bright side and freezing on the dark side. "The number of systems with potentially habitable planets is probably on the order of 10 or 20 percent, and when you multiply that by the hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way, that's a large number. There could be tens of billions of these systems in our galaxy," said Vogt.
An artist's impression of Gliese 581g, which astronomers say is near Earth - relatively speaking - at 120 trillion miles. Photograph: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation/AP
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 26.
#4. To: hondo68 (#0)
Ever since "scientists", including astronomers, told me there was man made global warming, I couldn't give a flying fuck what they say.
I don't know Woody. I bet you would not be able to contain your excitement and revelation if they posted a proof showing there was a flat Earth, and that the Universe was Geo- centric and revolved around us. You not only likely would give a flying fuck, you would be spreading 'I told you so' far and wide over the Internet. With joy overflowing from your flinty little conservative heart.
You not only likely would give a flying fuck, you would be spreading 'I told you so' far and wide over the Internet. With joy overflowing from your flinty little conservative heart. And that, exactly, is why you're a fucking idiot Mike, who believes his life's work is to sit, like a monkey, in a tree. If they showed me "proof" that "there was a flat Earth, and that the Universe was Geo- centric and revolved around us", I call them as crazy as I call you. They'd be as stupid as you are in my book. You don't have my ability to do that Mike.
Heehee, thanks for sharing Woody. Always enjoy your misguided passion. As for trees, I'm more of a 'branch manager,' teaching the art of climbing to younger folks interested in continuing the struggle of forest defense then I am into doing the rank and file work myself. And Dude I would say that I am as convinces as you are not that there is indeed global warming, and that the world is overpopulated with humans, and that the natural world looks a lot more like that depicted in the movie Soylent Green then it used to actually be like when that film was made in the early 1970s. Earth First! No compromise in the defense of mother Earth Take care, and watch out for those see monsters and that grand waterfall at the edge of the world.
Ya know Mike, if the people who believed as you do, that there are just too many humans here, would just go ahead and off themselves instead of demanding others die for their beliefs, the world would be a better place. However, you're all just a loud mouthed bunch of morons spouting shit without the moral convictions to do what they believe in. In other words, you're full of shit.
Well Chop, I am against abortion and genocide toward any end; including population reduction. I do support abstinence and reasonable means to control population numbers that have man and womankind live within their means on this planet that has a finite niche for our species. A species that has an obligation to protect the sanctity of all life on this blue bubble of a planet we all on some level love so much. I have put my life in jeopardy for what I believe in, and not just in trees as I was in the U.S. Army for nine years on active duty. I do not believe in suicide. Part of the responsibility not to be selfish and off oneself is very tangible. suicide triggers others to opt to do the same. I never want to do anything that would harm someone else outside of reasonable defense of oneself or of others in unwarranted danger due to the insane and aggressive acts of another.
Define "reasonable" Mike, and tell me who gets to decide what "reasonable" is. The problem with your statement is the word "control". How will it be "controlled"? Shall the government decide who can and who cannot have children, how many they can have, and of which sex? Well, that's not you Mike. You've already explained that you believe the earth comes first, ahead of all life, even human life. Life comes in a poor second place to you. You believe, what was it you said, "EARTH FIRST". There can only be one "first" Mike. If earth is first, life is second to you, or lower. Genocide could also be not allowing people in certain areas, or people of certain ethnic make-ups, to reproduce. It just TAKES A GENERATION or two to become effective. Population "control" IS genocide. You don't want to have kids so you can "save the earth?" Great. Don't have any.
You also hate budgeting too do you? No brakes on growth of numbers is the ethical creed of the cancer cell. We are not here merely to breed like lemmings until all socio-political-economic structure of humanity everywhere is ripped apart and the ensuing chaos takes care of the population excess for us. Humans are one of the most intelligent species on the planet and certainly the most systematically violent, greedy and inconsiderate of everything around them. Other living things do not merely exist to be instrumentalized into capital. How we treat other life defines how we in truth feel about ourselves. My view is far more caring about human life in that we are defined not just by being, but by our actions and how we put our expressed beliefs into practice. Kennedy said in his Inaugural Address, "If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich." By extension, if we can't preserve and save and help the biodiversity of the web of life on this planet, we cannot save ourselves, the one species that has made it wealthy beyond all historic measure compared to other species of life. Earth First! and the philosophy of deep ecology that postulates that all life has a right to exist for the value it has unto itself is one that deeply cares about human life. By advocating our species to mature enough to recognize this undeniable truth, we advocate for our species and show a deep and abiding love and respect for it. We care enough to say to our species to wake up, grow up and be responsible. Because as in the end, on the course you like to see us on leads us all to destruction and chaos, and even possibly our own extinction.
I see a lot of Utopian claptrap bullshit, but not a single answer to my questions.
To the contrary, you are the rose colored sun-glassed dude who thinks the Earth is a Utopian oyster that will forever be a cornucopia to humans regardless how unchecked their numbers are. My answer is quite appropriate to your framework of cross examination not meant to arrive at any truth. You seek merely to put me on the defensive. And you seek to do that, because deep down inside you know I am right. This scares you subconsiously and you don't want truth; you can't handle it at all. But you like any deficit spender hopes the species never will run off the cliff into the ocean to drown. Stick to denial if you wish dude. I know what I stand for, I stand for what I stand on. And what I stand on is comprised of all living things, including our species.
What. You're channeling Freud now? You, precisely, are why God made man mortal.
Likewise I'm sure, dude. Though I'm sure the Goddess is too complex to have any of her motives defined with the word 'precisely' by a mortal human with a point of reference far more limited in scope then hers.
#27. To: Ferret Mike (#26)
When you fell out of that tree, did you land on your head really hard? (That would explain it.)
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestAstronomers have discovered a potentially habitable planet of similar size to Earth in orbit around a nearby star.
#5. To: Wood_Chopper (#4)
#6. To: Ferret Mike (#5)
I don't know Woody. I bet you would not be able to contain your excitement and revelation if they posted a proof showing there was a flat Earth, and that the Universe was Geo- centric and revolved around us.
#8. To: Wood_Chopper (#6)
#10. To: Ferret Mike (#8)
(Edited)
and that the world is overpopulated with humans
#14. To: Wood_Chopper (#10)
"Ya know Mike, if the people who believed as you do, that there are just too many humans here, would just go ahead and off themselves instead of demanding others die for their beliefs, the world would be a better place."
#15. To: Ferret Mike (#14)
I do support abstinence and reasonable means to control population numbers....
A species that has an obligation to protect the sanctity of all life on this blue bubble of a planet....
Well Chop, I am against abortion and genocide toward any end; including population reduction.
#17. To: Wood_Chopper (#15)
(Edited)
"Population "control" IS genocide."
#19. To: Ferret Mike (#17)
blah blah blah
#22. To: Wood_Chopper (#19)
#24. To: Ferret Mike (#22)
(Edited)
You seek merely to put me on the defensive. And you seek to do that, because deep down inside you know I am right. This scares you subconsiously and you don't want truth; you can't handle it at all.
#26. To: Wood_Chopper (#24)
Replies to Comment # 26.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 26.
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