New Planet Found!

Before we all get too excited about this most recent discovery, we need to look at some of the facts. But before we get to that, let me give you some info about what was found in case there are a couple people just coming out from under their rock.

After nearly 11 years of searching, scientists have found a possible Earth-like planet somewhere out there in the great vastness of space. The planet, named Gliese 581g, is a planet that was found to reside in the "habital zone" of its solar system. This means that its orbit lies in that special area where it is not too hot and not too cold. The distance from its sun is just perfect so that the temperature is just right so as to provide liquid water - the essential piece of the life puzzle.

An artists rendering of Gliese 581g. The planet recently found to lie in the
 habital zone of its solar system.



Gliese 581g is 20 lightyears away from earth. That's over 117 trillion miles! Quite the car trip. Before we start packing our bags for a trip there let's take a look at some of the factors that might make life there difficult. First off, the planet does not rotate on its axis. There is one side of the planet always facing the sun, and one side always dark. That means the temperature ranges from -24 degrees F to 53.6 degrees F. I guess that's not too bad, I mean it gets that cold in the poles of Earth and there is life there. Most likely if life was to be found on Gliese 581g it most likely resides in the area that makes up the line between the dark and light sides. Where the temperature is a bit more moderate.

Gliese 581g orbits its sun every 37 Earth days. So that is how long a year lasts. Talk about being old, if you lived there you would have a birthday every 37 days! However discouraging this news can be, it is indeed a great find. After 11 years of searching Gliese 581g was located using the Keck Telescope in Hawaii. This does indeed prove to any naysayers that other Earth-like planets may not be as rare as previously thought by some. I have long said that we would be a very ignorant species if we actually believed that we are the only intelligent life out there. I'm not saying that there is intelligent life on Gliese, but the fact remains there are other planets out there that can support life. And who knows where they may be in their evolution. I mean what are the chances that they are at a point in theirs where it matches up with ours for us to have something in common. Its like a 5 year old trying to have something in common with a 60 year old.

All that aside, this is indeed great news. The find will undoubtedly give scientists and governments more gumption to spend money on these searches. And that is what we need to do to keep our chances of finding something good. In our lifetime, it will most likely not happen to where we will be able to communicate with ET, but we need to keep searching so at some point in our civilizations lifetime there will be life found. Our biggest problem we need to overcome is the distance between us and them. At current spacecraft speeds it will take many lifetimes for us to get anywhere out of our solar system worth going to. Can you say Warp drive or FTL drive? Science fiction is often spot on with predicting how things with space exploration will eventually work. Who knows, one day we may be able to travel somewhere worth traveling to. We will just have to wait and see. But Gliese 581g is a beacon of hope. And that's all it is right now. But then again, maybe that's all we needed!!