Astronomy / Space Another new Earth Like Planet 16 Light Years Away!

[Colonel Kenney]

http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/29/5...f-the-most-earth-like-planets-yet-gliese-832c



Sci News is reporting that astronomers at the University of New South Wales have discovered an Earthlike planet just 16 light-years away. The planet, dubbed Gliese 832c, is orbiting a red dwarf star half the mass and radius of our own sun. Gliese 832c has an orbital period of about 35 days, and a mass more than five times that of Earth's. More importantly, however, Gliese 832c is orbiting within the habitable zone of the red dwarf, and receives the same average stellar energy as Earth does from the sun, Sci News reports.


Hope they add it

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

Soul crushing gravity though. Still, red dwarf is known as very stable. Interesting if there's life there.

 

[Colonel Kenney]

Soul crushing gravity though. Still, red dwarf is known as very stable. Interesting if there's life there.

There is pressures at the bottom of the sea that would kill anything yet there is life. I'm sure life can adapt with muscles etc. We wouldn't be able to do much on the planet but other life maybe.

 

[Stodgy]

Soul crushing gravity though. Still, red dwarf is known as very stable. Interesting if there's life there.

Gravity would not be a big problem. As a planets mass increases so does its size making surface gravity not scale linearly with mass.

For instance Earth has 10 times the mass of Mars but only 3 times the surface gravity.

For a planet 5 times as massive as Earth the surface gravity would be less than 2g.

 

[Blaze Stark]

There is pressures at the bottom of the sea that would kill anything yet there is life. I'm sure life can adapt with muscles etc. We wouldn't be able to do much on the planet but other life maybe.

Pancake Life

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

Gravity would not be a big problem. As a planets mass increases so does its size making surface gravity not scale linearly with mass.

For instance Earth has 10 times the mass of Mars but only 3 times the surface gravity.

For a planet 5 times as massive as Earth the surface gravity would be less than 2g.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm....that's actually doable! Didn't know that G doesn't translate directly.

 

[Stodgy]

That's also assuming that it's mostly made of iron like Earth. If it's got a larger % of lighter elements the surface gravity could be closer to 1g.

 

[Daeron]

That's a lot of expanded real estate, depending on how crushing the rent will be!

 

[Jexter]

Pancake Life

Pancake! Ha!

 

[Commander M.O.]

With a surface gravity of 2g ... and a surface area 5 times the size of earth ... can you imagine the things that implies? Forests with a surface area larger than one entire hemisphere of the earth .. or even larger than that ... just, wow!

 

[Togg]

so... is this the planet that Dwarves come from?

 

[Daeron]

so... is this the planet that Dwarves come from?

Only if it is mineral rich, and mountainous. And all the trees better be chopped down, and all the deer eaten. And there must be nasty fish in the waters.

Then you might be onto something.

 

[Sir.Tj]

Moved to astronomy forum.

 

[metatheurgist]

Only if it is mineral rich, and mountainous. And all the trees better be chopped down, and all the deer eaten. And there must be nasty fish in the waters.

Then you might be onto something.

Higher G means smaller mountains, so maybe Hobbits?

 

[Fenris Wolf]

M Dwarf Gliese 581 - Update

Stellar activity masquerading as planets in the habitable zone of the M dwarf Gliese 581

The M dwarf Gliese 581 is believed to host four planets, including one (GJ 581d) near the habitable zone that could possibly support liquid water on its surface if it is a rocky planet. The detection of another habitable-zone planet—GJ 581 g—is disputed, as its significance depends on the eccentricity assumed for d. Analyzing stellar activity using the Hα line, we measure a stellar rotation period of 130 ± 2 days and a correlation for Hα modulation with radial velocity. Correcting for activity greatly diminishes the signal of GJ 581d (to 1.5σ) while significantly boosting the signals of the other known super-Earth planets. GJ 581d does not exist, but is an artifact of stellar activity which, when incompletely corrected, causes the false detection of planet g.


http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/07/02/science.1253253