Gliese 581d Confirmed as "Habitable" Exoplanet

[Medevila]

Read this at Cosmos Magazine
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/4321/first-habitable-exoplanet-confirmed

PARIS: A rocky world orbiting a nearby star was confirmed as the first planet outside our Solar System to meet key requirements for sustaining life.

Modelling of planet Gliese 581d shows it has the potential to be warm and wet enough to nurture Earth-like life, scientists have said. It orbits a red dwarf star called Gliese 581, located around 20 light years from Earth, which makes it one of our closest neighbours.

Gliese 581d orbits on the outer fringes of the star's 'Goldilocks zone', where it is not so hot that water boils away, nor so cold that water is perpetually frozen. Instead, the temperature is just right for water to exist in liquid form.

There's a lot more to the article, you can check out the article if you want.

[Naru523]

Awesome. Too bad Gliese 581 g doesn't exist, I suppose it would be the second planet to be confirmed habitable.

[atomic7732]

If it is confirmed that changes the whole system. d Would no longer be habitable.

[Naru523]

Mmm, true.

It's too bad they already sent a message to c, lol.

[Medevila]

Awesome. Too bad Gliese 581 g doesn't exist, I suppose it would be the second planet to be confirmed habitable.

It certainly exists...

The confirmed "habitable", however, is debatable as on further inspection of the document the article is based on, you find that there isn't that high a level of certainty as what is alluded to in the article.

The rocky planet lies within the Goldilocks Zone, and has an atmosphere that could allow liquid water. Life on the planet and presence of water aren't exactly known, it's just theorized either could be possible given the conditions.

[atomic7732]

Mmm, true.

It's too bad they already sent a message to c, lol.

It can't be directly at one planet... They wouldn't try that, because we don't know the orbits that well, and the f and g solution changes the orbits of every planet.




I came up with a 7 planet solution (yay for h) but I think one of them is really useless... lol

Here is the thing I came up with... Odd that mine looks oddly like a mix of them... it'd got c, then g, but d on it's eccentric orbit...

[Daryl95]

Awesome. Too bad Gliese 581 g doesn't exist, I suppose it would be the second planet to be confirmed habitable.

Why wouldn't gliese 581d be habitable?

[Naru523]

Why wouldn't gliese 581d be habitable?

*exoplanet. Sorry.

It would be, but I've heard some explanations that it isn't (i.e. tidal locked, tidal heating, etc.).

[Daryl95]

Why wouldn't gliese 581d be habitable?

*exoplanet. Sorry.

It would be, but I've heard some explanations that it isn't (i.e. tidal locked, tidal heating, etc.).

Well I was wondering why Gliese 581 G would do this. Someone above claimed that Gliese 581 G somehow changed the equation for Gliese 581 D.

[vh]

why? tidal lock and tidal heating

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_heating

[Teh_Saccade]

I wonder how much a house would cost to buy out there and whether it'd be cheaper than London..?

I'll bet the broadband would be pretty slow though. I mean - the ping would be pretty high over 2 light years.

[atomic7732]

*Teh_Saccade opens a browser and types in the forum's URL*

20 years later...

"Oh look it's loaded!"
*Teh_Saccade types a post in about a minute about how he's bought a house on a planet orbiting Gliese 581*

20 years later...

*Everyone on Earth (and by now on Luna and Mars too?) can finally see it*

[deoxy99]

Not unless the planet has its own internet placed on it.

But oh no, there won't be any data on it until someone makes a website.

[FiahOwl]

This message is only viewable with Universe Sandbox Galaxy Edition. Access it and much more with promo-code '45062'.