Canada's space telescope has spent the past two weeks straining for a glimpse of what an elite group of European astronomers claim is the first habitable planet discovered outside this solar system. The suitcase-sized Canadian satellite, called MOST, is the only instrument capable of quickly verifying the historic claim. The extrasolar planet -- or "exoplanet" -- is named Gliese 581 c, and is thus far the only other place in the universe believed capable of supporting liquid water, and therefore extraterrestrial life. It was discovered using the HARP instrument at the European Southern Observatory's 3.6-meter telescope in La Sille, Chile.
Also known as HO Librae, this dim star lies around 20.4 light-years from Sol. It is located in the northeast part (15:19:26.8-07:43:20.2, ICRS 2000.0) of Constellation Libra, the Scales -- northeast of Delta Librae, north of Gamma Librae and Graffias (Beta Scorpii), and southwest of Epsilon (Yed Posterior) and Delta (Yed Prior) Ophiuchi, and Mu, Epsilon, and Alpha (Unukalhai) Serpentis. Like other red dwarf stars, however, it is not visible to the naked eye. Gliese 581 is a cool and dim, main sequence red dwarf (M2.5 V). The star has almost a third (31 +/- 2 percent) of Sol's mass, possibly 29 percent of its diameter, and a bit more than one percent (around 0.013) of its visual luminosity. Read more
Astronomers have found the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System to date, a world which could have water running on its surface. The planet orbits the faint star Gliese 581, which is 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra. Scientists made the discovery using the Eso 3.6m Telescope in Chile.
The discovery of the new planet, named Gl581 c, is sure to fuel studies of planets circling similar dim stars. About 80 percent of the stars near Earth are red dwarfs. The new planet is about five times heavier than Earth. Its discoverers aren't certain if it is rocky like Earth or if it is a frozen ice ball with liquid water on the surface. If it is rocky like Earth, which is what the prevailing theory proposes, it has a diameter about 1 times bigger than our planet. If it is an iceball it would be even bigger. Based on theory, Gl581 c should have an atmosphere, but what's in that atmosphere is still a mystery. If it's too thick, that could make the planet's surface temperature too hot. However, the research team believes the average temperature to be somewhere between 32 and 104 degrees, and that set off celebrations among astronomers.
In a finding that if confirmed could stand as a landmark in history, astronomers have reported discovering the most Earthlike planet outside our Solar System to date: a world that may have liquid oceans and thus life. Swiss, French and Portuguese scientists found the body, estimated as 50 percent wider than our Earth, orbiting a so called red dwarf star relatively close to Earth. The star is thought to harbour two other planets also.
Expand (7kb, 632 x 414) The arrow marks the approximate location of the red dwarf star Gliese 581 with respect to the constellation Libra visible in the southern sky.
An international team of astronomers from Switzerland, France and Portugal have discovered the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System to date. The planet has a radius only 50 percent larger than Earth and is very likely to contain liquid water on its surface. The research team used the European Southern Observatory's (ESO's) 3.6-m telescope to discover the super-Earth, which has a mass about five times that of the Earth and orbits a red dwarf already known to harbour a Neptune-mass planet. Astronomers believe there is a strong possibility in the presence of a third planet with a mass about eight times that of the Earth in the system. However, unlike our Earth, this planet takes only 13 days to complete one orbit round its star. It is also 14 times closer to its star than the Earth is from the Sun. However, since its host star, the red dwarf Gliese 581, is smaller and colder than the Sun - and thus less luminous - the planet lies in the habitable zone, the region around a star where water could be liquid.