Gliese 581 C
Created | Updated Apr 26, 2007
Gliese 581 C is the planet that has recently been causing somewhat of a furore, what with it being similar in nature to the Earth. It is only 1.5 times the size of Earth (tiny, compared to the other 200ish planets discovered so far outside our solar system, which have all been gassy giants), although the surface gravity is an estimated likely to be between 2.1 or 5.03 times that of our planet (depending on whether it has a rocky or icy make-up, a fact yet to be confirmed).
If you fancy checking out for yourself what its really like there, it can be found in the constellation of Libra, although it is rather too far away to be going to just yet-around 20 light years. If you meet anyone whilst you're there, do not be too surprised if they tell you they are a very large number of years old, because one Gliese 581 C-ese year is a mere 13 earth days. It's climate is believed to be around 0-40 degreesC.
The reason for all this uproar about this new planet, or 'super-earth', is because it's orbit resides in the so-called 'Goldilocks' area of it's sun, just far enough that liquid water could, theoretically, exist.
Currently, there is no technology powerful enough to directly observe Gliese 581 C so we will have to wait for further observatons of the tell tale signs of life down (or up) there. Conditions there are obviously of great importance, because if it does prove hospitable for organisms like us, as well raising all sorts of ethical/religious debates it will also provide us with a ready-made planet to run away to if we ruin ours, or a comet hits here or any other catastrophic event along these lines occurs. This seems likely, Stephen Hawking has recommended that the human race finds another planet to move to, if the human race is to survive...although that may also prove ultimately a pointless exercise, if the big crunch theory pans out and the universe ends, no matter what we do we're damned.
If you fancy checking out for yourself what its really like there, it can be found in the constellation of Libra, although it is rather too far away to be going to just yet-around 20 light years. If you meet anyone whilst you're there, do not be too surprised if they tell you they are a very large number of years old, because one Gliese 581 C-ese year is a mere 13 earth days. It's climate is believed to be around 0-40 degreesC.
The reason for all this uproar about this new planet, or 'super-earth', is because it's orbit resides in the so-called 'Goldilocks' area of it's sun, just far enough that liquid water could, theoretically, exist.
Currently, there is no technology powerful enough to directly observe Gliese 581 C so we will have to wait for further observatons of the tell tale signs of life down (or up) there. Conditions there are obviously of great importance, because if it does prove hospitable for organisms like us, as well raising all sorts of ethical/religious debates it will also provide us with a ready-made planet to run away to if we ruin ours, or a comet hits here or any other catastrophic event along these lines occurs. This seems likely, Stephen Hawking has recommended that the human race finds another planet to move to, if the human race is to survive...although that may also prove ultimately a pointless exercise, if the big crunch theory pans out and the universe ends, no matter what we do we're damned.
