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.
Gliese 581 C is the smallest extrasolar planet, or “exoplanet,†discovered to date. It is located about 15 times closer to its star than Earth is to the Sun; one year on the planet is equal to 13 Earth days. Because red dwarfs, also known as M dwarfs, are about 50 times dimmer than the Sun and much cooler, their planets can orbit much closer to them while still remaining within their habitable zones, the spherical region around a star within which a planet’s temperature can sustain liquid water on its surface.
Computer models predict Gliese 581 C is either a rocky planet like Earth or a waterworld covered entirely by oceans with a mean temperature of between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius [32 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit].
IT's ABOUT TIME they find something worthwhile! I've been checking out the NASA photos everyday - which are cool and everything, but how do they relate to me? They don't. They're fantasy. This is something we can bite into. This one has teeth. A planet that is habitable? holy wow. Why did it take so long to find this? Astronomers are the laziest bunch of psuedo-scientists. I call them arm-chair scientists. They look at stars through telescopes - what kind of job is THAT?
Hey hey, leave astronomers alone! It takes a lot of dedication to be content to observe galaxies from a distance. I find it the most admirable field in which discoveries occur BECAUSE the astronomers are working from such an incredible distance. It takes a lot of focus and attention to detail to notice a habitable planet near an extremely dim M type star.
This made me extremely happy, and I'm proud of the astronomers who made the discovery.
Astronomers have made plenty of discoveries in recent years. A lot of which are very much related to us, even on a direct level. But a lot of their contributions go unnoticed by the public because there isn't media attention to those particular discoveries. If you look up a montly Astronomy journal there are tons of examples. But of those the only ones that get sifted to the general public are often pretty pictures and something like this.
This made me extremely happy, and I'm proud of the astronomers who made the discovery.