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Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation
The orbits of planets in the Gliese 581 system are compared to those of our own solar system. The Gliese 581 star has about 30 percent the mass of our sun, and the outermost planet is closer to its star than we are to the sun. Gliese 581d might be able to sustain liquid water on its surface.
The case is building about the habitability of a planet orbiting a red dwarf star about 20-light years away from Earth, according to a new climate modeling study.
The planet, Gliese 581d, is one of a handful of planets orbiting the star Gliese 581. When it was discovered in 2007, astronomers thought it was likely too cold for liquid water, and thus life.
The new study, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, suggests high concentrations of carbon dioxide in its atmosphere could keep things warm enough for liquid water to be sustained at the surface.
The finding falls on the heels of a similar atmospheric modeling studies published that have reached a similar conclusion.
Atmospheric collapse
However, those studies were based on simple simulations that couldn't determine whether or not the atmosphere would collapse due to the fact the planet likely has a permanent day and night side.
In such a situation, the night side could be cold enough to freeze out the atmosphere, ruining any prospects for a habitable climate.
The new study uses a model that simulates the atmosphere and surface in three-dimensions, much like models used to study climate change on Earth.
To their surprise, the researchers found that with a dense carbon dioxide atmosphere — a likely scenario on such a large planet — the climate of Gliese 581d is stable against collapse and warm enough to have oceans, clouds and rainfall.
The planet "will have a stable atmosphere and surface liquid water for a wide range of plausible cases, making it the first confirmed super-Earth … in the habitable zone," the team, led by Robin Wordsworth at the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace in Paris, concludes in the journal.
Rayleigh scattering
A key factor of the result is a phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering, which makes the sky blue on Earth. In our solar system, the effect limits the amount of sunlight a thick atmosphere can absorb because a large amount of blue light is scattered back to space.
Since starlight from Gliese 581 is red, however, it is almost unaffected and can penetrate deep into the atmosphere and heat up the planet thanks to the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide.
The simulations also show that daylight heating is efficiently redistributed across the planet by the atmosphere, preventing atmospheric collapse on the night side or the poles.
If the planet is indeed habitable, the researchers note that it would be a strange place: the dense air and thick clouds would keep the surface in a perpetual murky red twilight.
The Gliese 581 solar system also holds another candidate for habitability, 581g, which was announced last year. However, whether or not that planet actually exists remains up for debate.
The new study on 581d " is important because it's the first time climate modelers have proved that the planet is potentially habitable, and all observers agree that the exoplanet exists," Wordsworth told the British news agency Press Association.
"The Gliese system is particularly exciting to us as it's very close to Earth, relatively speaking. So with future generations of telescopes, we'll be able to search for alien life on Gliese 581d directly."
Wordswoth added in an email to me that finding a potentially habitable planet that is so unlike Earth bodes well for the search for life in general.
"I think it's becoming clearer with every discovery we make in exoplanet science that the variety of worlds out there in the universe is going to be far greater than the few examples we are used to from our solar system," he said.
More on the Gliese 581 system:
- Alien planet looks just right for life
- Scientists find most earthlike planet yet
- Scientists find lightest alien planet yet
- R.I.P possibly habitable planet 581g? Not so fast, co-discoverer says
- How to find life on an alien planet?
- Alien planet may be in the habitable zone after all
- Hopes dashed for life on distant planet
John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by hitting the "like" button on the Cosmic Log Facebook page or following msnbc.com's science editor, Alan Boyle, on Twitter (@b0yle).
Leave a Comment:
Interesting, are we looking for another planet since Earth is dying? And who will go there? Will the government pick and choose? Will they also pay the tickets for the scumbags in street gangs, so they can reproduce and destroy that planet too?
Bitch Bitch Bitch....Is there anything else retards like yourself do besides complain about EVERYTHING.
If you read the article, it's basic premise is the search for alien life. You need some planet that supports liquid water and an atmosphere.
If it is a replacement for Earth, I sure hope the government doesn't bring you along the trip. You'll complain the whole way there.
My goodness. YOur attitude is more negative than Freedom's. Have your morning coffee yet?
I disagree Ruth; it gets quite old reading negative comments on here all the time on even the most positive of stories. Glad somebody is taking a stand.
And this helps me how....
With existing (and I emphasize existing) technology, 'going' is out of the question where interstellar distances are involved. Right now, we just want to know.
Freedom:
Was this comment made in all seriousness? What a strange thing to say, and an even stranger way to think.
Call me overly optimistic if you will, but I find it silly when people are so skeptical about space travel simply because of "distance" and the complexity it presently represents (key word "present").
Yes, the vast distance seems insurmountable to us now. But, our technology is growing exponentially. When/if we do finally discover a way to transverse the galaxy, it will be through new technology and new science we found possible through the means of the future (that seem impossible to us now.)
Is that really so hard to grasp? Think of what we can do now that would seem infinitely impossible 200 years ago. To think in those same patterns of reflection given the incredible speed and growth with which we've shown our passion for progress seems incredibly ignorant on our part. I'll admit that the bungling, bloated, inept country that we have become over the years may not be the ones to develop this new science/tech ... but we are but a small portion of the larger common denominator.
“We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
The problem here being time and distance. The solution being ... things we can't even grasp at the moment.
But we will.
Agreed. Technology is advancing at such an unprecedented rate in today's world that within a few hundred years (if not decades) mankind will be going places and doing things that were previously only found only in an H.G. Wells novel. Time is the only factor.
Then again, maybe I'm just a glass half-full individual.
The distances are extremely vast, but you never know what the research with devices such as the LHC may uncover about the full nature of physics. We may discover things that were right under our noses all along, but we didn't quite see it for what it really is. If they can bridge physics and quantum physics, that Unified Theory will lead to tons of technological breakthroughs.
I just hope that we have figured out how to use our technologies to live in harmony with the Earth again before we start traveling out to colonize other worlds.
The possibility to travel those type of distances may happen even sooner than that. With the LHC just capturing anti matter for the first time. What was it, like 15 minutes or something like that? Elements like that and a few other discoveries that are happening over in Iran are putting us very close to make vast voyages across space and time. Crazy days we live in, I just hope we survive to get there. That is as long as the world isn't destroyed this weekend.
The shuttle would need about 37,200 years to go one light-year. Why do we spend money trying to figure out what planets that far away are capable of. What a waste!!! Even if it is habitable or if there if life there, we will never get there, soo who cares.
I care.
If there is life elsewhere in the universe, it would be wonderful for us to know... To know that we are not alone... That man is not the center of everything, and that we better get off of our high horses and focus on things that really matter as a civilization.
falcon90
Read post #2 and stop being so negative.
I don't know falcon90, you should do a little research on that matter and you might come to a different conclusion. We may be able to travel distances like that very soon. Maybe even over the next decade or so. The LHC just captured anti matter for the first time ever for something like 15 minutes. The power that anti matter has would do more than enough to get us across the universe. Also if you research a certain physicist in Iran who has discovered anti gravity and magnetic force-fields, by his discoveries he is certain we will be able to go anywhere we want in the entire universe. I know that sounds crazy but you should look into it and see what he has to say. He makes very valid points to how his discovery works.
Pink - One of the earliest discriptions of a magnetic field was by Petrus Peregrinus in 1269, formalised formulas describing a magnetic field was introduced by Lorentz and Maxwell in the 1800's. Anti gravity would unravel a planet, a star or anything with significant mass. Levitation experiments involve putting objects between two strong magnets in whic the magnetic force exceeds the gravitational force. The only way to get anywhere fast in space would be to compress the space. Even at the speed of light, we are still talking decades of travel. You might want to do some research in quantum mechanics to help you better understand.
When I was a kid, talk about going to the moon was far fetched and still science fiction.
Too all that have that "who cares" attitude, please take a moment and look around you with all the luxuries you live with. If you still think science is useless, please turn your computer off, throw it in the trash, and go find a cave to live in. Geez, what a wonderful life you'd have without any technoligy developed by science. Unbelievable, how ignorant can you really get?
TReed- Here is some of the info that Mr.Pink was referring to.
Let me be clear about my position on the reality of this technology. I very sincerely hope he is telling the truth. I have no reason to believe he is lying. But the simple extent of this potential breakthrough is almost unfathomable. There are only three options here. Keshe has produced a breakthrough technolology that holds the potential to change our world, he is an absolute liar, or he is delusional.
Stupid links never work for me. Just copy and paste, but make sure you delete the spaces.
Heres some links for the anti-matter being captured.
/alpha/
/cws/article/news/44343
Here is a link for some info on Keshe.
/2011/04/11/nuclear-engineer-mehran-tavakoli-keshe-has-came-forward-as-being-the-developer-of-the-technology-being-used-in-irans-new-flying-saucer-his-technology-is-claimed-to-harness-magnetism-and-gravi/
The problem with Keshe's statement is that gravity itself can not be influenced by magnetism, they are two different types of forces. The gravitational force is caused by the curvature of space, magneticism is an electromagnetic force and is much stronger than gravity. The Earth's magnetic field is between 30 to 60 microteslas. The magnetic field on a maglev train is 16 Teslas. Big difference in the magnitude of the power of the magnetic fields. The next problem is saying that protons and electrons are made up of anti-matter, dark-matter and normal matter, it is a ridiculus statement. Protons and electrons make up normal matter, their antiparticle equivalents, anti-proton and positron, have opposite spins and would annihilate each other. Dark matter doesn't interact with normal matter or anti-matter. Since, plasma is a state of matter in which the atoms of a gas has an electron stripped from it and creates polarity on the matter. This in turn would create a small magnetic field, but not enough to lift an object that can hold a human. What he states defies verified particle physics and quantum physics, so until he produces verifiable results to counter known particle physics, will anyone with particle physics knowledge accept his theories.
Can anyone tell me why its deleting my links??????????????? Newsvine, please fix this problem!!! I even put a space after the first part and it deleted that but left everthing after it. Rediculous
LINK EXPERIMENT: Pete, here is the same link served three different ways (and I believe this is one of the links you were trying to post):
Text Only (with no hyperlink) - http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/44343
Text & Hyperlink - http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/44343
Clickable text (hidden hyperlink) - Antihydrogen trapped at CERN
Let's see how these links post....
(editing after posting) - links work for me.
Do you owe anyone at Newsvine Central money? ;-)
I wasnt aware of a hyperlink sur-charge lol
Did you just copy and past? Some instructions on how to do those three operations would be nice (do you just use the edit link button?). I have used text only links before so I dont understand why it didnt let me post them. Also, they were there during my allotted time for editing, then gone when I refreshed, which is why I got upset enough to ask for help.
Test link:
I have also been getting a spam filter captcha lately to accept my posts.
LINK TEST #2:
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/44343
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/44343
I don't know Pete. This time I used "Easy Mode" rather than "XHTML Mode".
Also, I've never had to use a Captcha to post.
I'd drop a line to Newsvine Tech Support.
Sorry!
@SmallTown - Newsvine gives you the ability to insert links after a period of time. I just got my ability for this maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago. I used to remove the http:// to get the link to show.
I agree with Freedom 24. Wherever man goes, he messes it up. And of course it would be the politicians first, then scientists. Us little people can kiss our butts goodbye.
Perhaps the reason why man messes things up is because we employ an antique system of governance? We are still young when it comes to handling technology. We've have never consumed so much resources(because of energy like Oil and gas) with technology throughout human history. We've only had this ability for under two hundred years.
Maybe the problem is we, as in humanity, haven't grown up yet.
Ruth
While it's wise to consider where we've been, it also helps to look at where we are going. We may think we mess everything up (and we have).
But, we learn. We adapt. We evolve.
To ignore all the beauty in light of all the ugliness is to deny the history we've fought so hard to obtain.
I recommend a quick watch of this video.
As Sagan asks: "Are we to venture into space?"
The short answer is yes. And, when we are able to inhabit another planet, hopefully we will have taken more of strengths and fewer of our weaknesses. I for one believe in that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY59wZdCDo0&feature=player_embedded
But if the politicians go, wouldn't we be better off and be able to correct all their f***ups???
falcongo, i bet if you were around in the early days of drake,columbus etc, we would all be speaking anything other than english.
I thought life could adapt to any environment?
We'll all be dead before anything like that happens.
Dear Falcon90, Uhmmm the shuttle is being retired, but that not withstanding with the building of the space stations, and the potential launch/fuel availability fromt the moon instead of earth it would not be difficult to get the space shuttle up to around 200k-225k which would but the time to between 28-25 years to go one light year (Hold on, before you go slamming how long that still is, that is just math and using current technology) There is absolutely no reason or rationale to think that in 20 -40 years we will have the same technology so that should change drastically... However the primary goal of seeking out life supporting planets isn't for a mass exodus (not at this time) it is to confirm that we not alone in this vast space called our universe... To think that we could we have more solid proof in our lifetime is extremely exhilarating!!!
Ok so just take a look at those "planets" around that dwarf sun. they are all very tiny, but yet the declassified pluto as a planet. I just dont understand these scientists.
The problem is the definition of a planet. Now that we can see out into the Kuiper Belt with more accuracy, we have found many Pluto like objects in its region of space. Size is not the determining factor in declassifying Pluto as a planet.
Like other members of the Kuiper belt, Pluto is composed primarily of rock and ice and is relatively small about a fifth the mass of our Moon and a third its volume. I believe that its similarities to many other objects in the Kuiper belt lead to it being classified along with them rather then as a planet.
Stephan,
They are not dwarf planets. We have not developed the technology to find planets that small around other solar systems quite yet.
Gliese 581 d is about 5x the mass of our Earth. Gliese 581 g (if its existence is confirmed) is likely between 3-4x the mass of our Earth.
The planets in the photo are an artists representation. Gliese 581d, by mass, is larger than Earth. There also has been no picture of the actual pictures of the planets around Gliese 581, there approximate sizes are determined by the drop in luminisity of the host star.
lol like has been said it's an artists representation. Did you actually think we've photographed other planets directly, much less with enough resolution to make out atmospheric and land/water features? Come on, joke post...
"Think of what we can do now that would seem infinitely impossible 200 years ago."
It's not the same. The difference between what we can do now and what we could do 200 years ago and the difference between where we are now and what it would take to reach the nearest star isn't comparable.
This isn't a linear problem. It takes infinite energy to go the speed of light. To even get close to the speed of light so that the trips can be made within a reasonable amount of time (for the traveller, meanwhile years, decades or even centuries are passing on Earth) would take an unimaginable amount of energy.
It's so easy to fall into the trap of looking at the progress we've made in the past and projecting that out to the future and think that it's just a matter of time before we're traveling the stars, but the problems of interstellar travel bring us up against the fundamental limits of the universe. Our advances can only take us so far.
Les,
No disrespect, but I feel that completely misses the point.
My observation isn't to look at our current technology and extrapolate outward.
My point is that when/if we do figure it out, it will be using an understanding of science that we don't currently have. The very phrase "It takes infinite energy to go the speed of light" becomes completely obsolete within this framework. The problem is we can't currently "calculate" anything because we don't even have all the variables defined within quantifiable terms ... yet.
This isn't a problem for us. My mention of 200 years was in no way a timeline for interstellar travel. And, I'm okay with that.
The "humans" who gaze upon the first foreign starsystem will more than likely be further from us (as a species) then we can imagine. But again, I'm okay with that. Moreso, I found beauty in that.
Completely agree chad. It's interesting to see how much we assume about something we really don't know enough about to make a valid assumption. Physics especially. We're confined to what we know, I get that, but the whole point of progress is that those confinements are expanded with every new piece of information we gather. I highly doubt the physics of 200 years from now will be in any way representative of what we currently know. It's just impossible to assume what we know now will remain set in stone forever. That's why I love science.
Well said High Angel, What ever you think technology was 6 months ago, guess what, its changed again. It is exponential. Current technology has a trip to mars to take 8 months. However, a new plasma engine now under development could cut that to 2 months! And so it goes. The acknowledgment that we are not alone will be a quantum shift in how we think as a society. At least for those who aren't afraid of change.
It would be an exponential shift possibly but not a quantum shift. The very definition of a quantum shift represents the smallest possible movement allowed by current physics.
Then again it's an overused (and misused) phrase so it's understandable.
Les with everything we know today you would be right in saying that....however trying to predict how advanced we will be 500-10,000 years from now is really having a little bit of a closed mind..
Hell yes, lets go for it in ten years or so it can be called Illegalaco. We have ran out of room and money here at money earth.
I can't wait for us to find a planet so we can rape it of it's natural resources and if there is life there and they try to stop us, all we have to do is relocate them or kill them.
Well...I don't really think we are looking for other life on a different planet, as much as that, we are looking for a compatable planet to use as an" ARK" to transport male and female breeds to keep "Earthlike Life" alive when "Earth", as we know it, comes to an end.
Sounds like a plan too me!
I strongly doubt that we'll ever find a way to travel faster than the speed of light, nature's speed limit.
But that doesn't mean we won't ever get there. I suspect the solution will come from life sciences, rather than physics.
Either we will find a regenerative technology that makes us effectively immortal, or we will perfect cryogenics, or we will find a way to download our consciousness into artificial bodies. Once we, as individuals, begin making our decisions in terms of centuries rather than decades, it will be time for us to leave the nest and start settling elsewhere.
Well once we discover how a black hole pulls a light photon into it's center and reverse engineering the process is when we will be able to say that we have breached the light speed barrier.
A blackhole is the only known spacial phenom to actually trap and devour a light photon traveling at 186, mph. What ever process is present that effects the light photon's inertia must have a greater energy potential to effect the light photon or the light photon will simply pass by flipping the black hole the celestial middle finger.
The key to traveling at the speed of light resides within the constant's of the blackhole pulling the light photon into it's center.
There's no limit to what scientific discoveries may hold
To go faster than the speed of light, space will have to be compressed. The theory is based on the Alcubierre drive.
I theorize that light travels faster than nature's speed limit is becuase of a sort of a giant hole. It affects special relativity and has light travel extremely fast. Imagine a bowling ball lane. Earth is the bowler and a planet is a bowling pin and Special Relativity or just plain space is the lane. Now imagine a great giant gaping hole opened up. You throw the ball with all your might (The Spaceship) then that giant hole sucks some other pins and other items (Spacestuff). The ball gets sucked in. Viola! Imagine doing that but then suddenly eliminating the hole and all that speed is harnessed by the ship!
once again people trying to predict the future....
Wouldn't it be amazing if we found a habitable planet within one two to three light years from Earth. Space is a big place. NASA needs the resources in order to be able to scan more than a few percent of the sky at anyone time.
The Second Earth is out there somewhere. Have faith in creation and creation will reward us a new planet.
Clark Kent - simmer downna!
Ryon - The closet solar system to Earth outside of our own, is the Alpha_Centauri AB/Proxima Centauri system. It's a little over 4 light years away. It's a binary system (possible trinary with Proxima having the least influence, being a red dwarf star). Alpha Centauri A is slightly larger than our sun, and Alpha Centauri B slightly smaller.
No planets have been discovered there yet, but that does not mean that they don't exist. There a number of scenarios under which a habitable planet (or moon) could exist there.
habitable exo-planets, this is more pie in the sky hype very similiar to 'popsci' and the personal flying car. we aint goin there in any possible way and unless they come here to deliver ftl drive you can have this dream but dont get your hopes up
We will prove the discovery of a habitable exoplanet long before humans ever set foot on one, so people are free to dream... No need to squash them!
The speed of light is just another limit we put on our thinking just like the speed of sound. Go back to the 20's or so and read the facts about how it is impossible to go faster than the speed of sound. Very solid science facts prove it can't be done. Well, so much for that barrier. As we come to understand that we exist in a multidimensional universe, as math and science currently show, we will eventually break through the theory and into practical application.
It may be that instead of flying in a straight line many thousands of light years to a distant star or planet, we simply slide right next to it dimensionally as it were, and pop out right there.
If this is even a possibilty, we should explore further into it! Earth is DYING. People should realize this. We have damaged it too much, and fixing it fast enough would require a S***load of money, and do you really trust all the world's leaders to do something for FREE? Maybe they will, but let's face it. Humans always refuse a possibility until it's shoved in their face and too late.
Though the question of who will go is a good one. Obviously, Scientists and important political peoples will go first, followed by a certain number of regular citizens. And though you all don't want to hear this, any citizen that lives in a "ghetto" area will probably be overlooked until everyone else is taken care of.
So basically, we need to get off Earth. This...this is GREAT news. :D
So, is there any planet in a famous sifi story that orbits a red dwarf?