Another Earth Spotted?
Note: Nothing to do with our own solar system, but it is interesting nonetheless.
It looks like scientists may have spotted the first planet outside of our solar system that is potentially habitable for life.
(Space.com) An Earth-like planet spotted outside our solar system is the first found that could support liquid water and harbor life, scientists announced today.
Liquid water is a key ingredient for life as we know it. The new found planet is located at the “Goldilocks” distance—not too close and not too far from its star to keep water on its surface from freezing or vaporizing away. [...]
The new planet is about 50 percent bigger than Earth and about five times more massive. The new “super-Earth” is called Gliese 581 C, after its star, Gliese 581, a diminutive red dwarf star located 20.5 light-years away that is about one-third as massive as the Sun.
This is the first terrestrial world discovered outside of our solar system that orbits within the habitable zone of a star. Although the planet orbits a short distance around its star (about 13 Earth days), life forms could easily survive on this world due to the dimness (or rather lack of heat) from the red dwarf sun.
Scientists are probably going to take a second look at this, and it will be interesting to see whether or not we will be able to locate features upon this world in the future.
Note: I’ve just alerted Paul over at Centauri Dreams, who should have an interesting analysis regarding this discovery.
Update (4/25): Paul has posted his analysis here with a video over here. Exciting stuff!
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New Way To Locate Earth-like Worlds
One of the reasons it is hard for us to spot Earth-like worlds is because of the brightness of their parent star. A new technique with current technology may find a way of eliminating that brightness and allow us glimpse worlds beyond our solar system.
(MSNBC) A thin plastic “starshade” shaped like a giant daisy flower could one day help astronomers observe faraway planets by blocking out unwanted light from their parent stars, a new study reports.
When telescopes point to a distant planet, the small amount of light reflected by the planet is overshadowed by the light from its parent star, making it especially difficult to be seen. [...]
One way to tackle this problem is to place a shield, known to Sun-watchers as a coronagraph, inside the telescope. In this way, astronomers block out the main light from our own favorite star, providing a view of the environment around it.
If we are able to locate star systems harboring worlds that are favorable, not only would this encourage humanity to explore the stars, but we would have an idea of which direction to head towards in the first place.
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Using Earthshine To Discover Alien Life
Although this technique is controversial (as in whether it works or not) some scientists think that they can use “Earthshine,” or sunlight reflecting off of our homeworld to detect life on other planets.
(New Scientist Space) Earthshine–the dim glow from sunlight bouncing off the Earth, and reflected back from the Moon’s surface–may aid in the search for life on other planets, say scientists. [...][Wesley Traub of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory] and other researchers detailed how the spectrum of Earthshine reveals the presence of ozone and chlorophyll, both sure signs of biological activity on Earth. In the future, it is expected that planet hunting space telescopes will be able to resolve Earth-like planets as tiny pinpricks of light circling around their parent stars.
And though such a “pale blue dot” would not likely reveal any visual details, its spectrum might be enough to distinguish between a sterile and a living world.
This idea is probably worth exploring. Although worlds such as Mercury and Mars (if it has resources) may prove themselves to be worthwhile over time, colonizing more habitable planets would be in our long term best interests. Not only would it cost less money, but would require less energy to colonize as well.
Update: Added photo and corrected html.
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Habitable Exo-Solar Planets Found
Although discoveries of exo-solar worlds are becoming a common phenomenon, its not every day that you hear of a planet orbiting within the “habitable zone,” a region of space suitable for Earth like conditions.
(MSNBC) “For the first time, we have discovered a planetary system composed of several Neptune-mass planets,” said study team member Christophe Lovis of the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland.
The setup is similar to our own solar system in many ways: The outermost planet is located just within the star’s habitable zone, where temperatures are moderate enough for liquid water to form, and the system also contains an asteroid belt.
The newly discovered planets have masses about 10, 12 and 18 times that of Earth, and they zip around the star in rapid orbits of about nine, 32 and 197 days, respectively.
Although the two inner most worlds are probably too close to the sun, the outer one lies within “the habitable zone” making it a prime target for colonization. Despite being a Neptune sized planet, it may have lunar bodies which would make them prime candidates for future colonies.
(MSNBC) Recent observations by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope last year revealed that HD 69830 also hosts an asteroid belt, making it the only other sunlike star known to have one.
When the asteroid belt was found, it was suspected that there might be an unseen planet that was shepherding the asteroids; it now seems that there is more than one shepherd. The researchers think the asteroid belt could lie between the two outermost planets, or beyond the third planet.
This star system is about 41 light years away from our own and lies in the Puppis the Stern constellation. Although we do not have the technology to view asteroids, it would be interesting to figure out their composition (as it would increase the value of this system for future colonists).
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A Future Retrograde Solar System?
A new star system in infancy may give birth to planetary systems orbiting in the opposite directions. According to present theories, worlds usually orbit stars in the same direction, although this new find may shatter former perceptions.
(Spaceref.com) “This is the first time anyone has seen anything like this, and it means that the process of forming planets from such disks is more complex than we previously expected,” said Anthony Remijan, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, who with his colleague Jan M. Hollis, of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, used the National Science Foundation’s Very Large Array radio telescope to make the discovery.
“The solar system that likely will be formed around this star will include planets orbiting in different directions, unlike our own solar system in which all the planets orbit the Sun in the same direction,” Hollis explained.
This star is located about 500 light years away from Earth and is located in the direction of the Ophiuchus constellation. Star systems normally acquire “planet building material” which is generally taken from a prestellar cloud. Apparently this young system has somehow captured two.
(Spaceref.com) “We think this system may have gotten material from two clouds instead of one, and the two were rotating in opposite directions,” Remijan said.There is sufficient material to form planets from both parts of the disk, he added. The object is in a large, star-forming region where chaotic motions and eddies in the gas and dust result in smaller cloudlets that can rotate in different directions.
In the solar system that probably will form around this young star, the innermost planets will orbit in one direction and the outer planets will orbit in the opposite direction.
Sightings like these generally occur within the disks of galaxies, although this is the first time something like this has been observed an emerging system. If we are ever fortunate enough to visit this system (after the worlds cool) it will make an interesting place to call home.
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