Gliese 581c
Telescope at European Southern Observatory Detects New Planet
The newest planet found outside our solar system by the telescope at the European Southern Observatory is orbiting a red dwarf star named Gliese 581.
The search for other potentially habitable planets outside our solar system got a big boost on April 25th, when astronomers announced the discovery of Gliese 581c which orbits the red dwarf star Gliese 581. The planet has a mass five times greater than Earth and is located in the constellation Libra, 20.5 light years away, (not exactly next door at 120 trillion miles but the gap between us and Gliese 581c is small when the distances in space are incomparably larger).
Astronomers who made the discovery at the European Southern Observatory in La Silla, Chile are excited, and rightfully so. The surface temperature of this world is thought to be similar to that of Earth, between zero and forty degrees Celsius and thus the presence of water would be more likely. But everybody involved in the find has agreed that more observation will be necessary since nothing has been confirmed yet. Gliese 581c orbits its own sun at a much smaller distance than Earth, roughly 6 million miles versus 93 million miles. And the parent star itself is much smaller and cooler than our sun. There are two other planets in this system, which have been given the names Gliese 581b and Gliese 581d respectively. There's no doubt that it is a far different solar system than ours.
Now, this important discovery begs the question, is there life on this planet? Nobody knows. But what makes this find so remarkable is that Gliese 581c is in the Goldilocks Zone. This term was coined by astrobiologists who are looking for the possibility of life on other planets, and it describes a world where it is not too hot and not too cold for water to boil or freeze. If there is liquid water on the surface of Gliese 581c then the possibility of life exists since it is a vital ingredient for many organisms to survive. But we do not yet know what the planet is made of, it may be composed of solid rock, or it might be a combination of an earthlike surface and water.
SETI (The Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence) with its array of telescopes in New Mexico are aimed at the sky designed to intercept messages from civilizations in deep space and we continually wait, and listen. So far, we have heard nothing and taking into consideration the almost unimaginable distances between the stars, it may be a very, very long time before we hear anything at all. But, now that we know of the existence of Gliese 581c it is going to be the main focus for a radio search, and in the future will be a stepping stone to search other worlds for the possibility of life. Still, there may be nothing to find on Gliese 581c.
Even skeptics who are firm in their belief that humans are alone in the galaxy might now look at the cosmos in a new light. Even if contact was made between us and an advanced civilization it's hard to say what our reaction would be. And it appears that with the discovery of Gliese 581c, Earth may not be as unique as we once thought and the universe, at least our part of it, just got a little bit smaller.
