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Started by Jmpty, June 26, 2013, 09:21:05 AM

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Jmpty

New observations of the star system Gliese 667 have led to the discovery of three planets inside a star's habitable zone, the region in which liquid water might exist. Gliese 667 is a trinary system that includes three stars, Gliese 667A, 667B, and 667C, and is situated 22 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius.

With three stars, the Gliese 667 system is quite different from our own solar system, and yet there is now a crucial similarity: three planets in a habitable zone. In our solar system, Earth is of course located squarely in our Sun's habitable zone, with Venus scraping the inner edge of the zone and Mars the outer edge. In the Gliese 667 system, three planets are now known to orbit Gliese 667C inside the star's habitable zone.

Previous studies had identified three planets orbiting Gliese 667C, with one in the habitable zone. The new study, led by Guillem Anglada-Escudé of the University of Göttingen, Germany and Mikko Tuomi of the University of Hertfordshire, UK, has determined that Gliese 667C actually hosts seven planets: two hotter worlds orbiting too close to the star to be in the habitable zone, the three planets in the habitable zone, and two more frigid planets orbiting farther from the star.

The two hot worlds and the three habitable-zone planets are likely tidally locked, meaning that one side of the planet always faces its star and the other side faces away and is perpetually shrouded in darkness. The three habitable-zone planets are all super-Earths, more massive than Earth but less massive than Uranus or Neptune.

Because Gliese 667C is only approximately one-third as massive as our Sun, its planets' orbits are far smaller than those in our solar system and its habitable zone is closer, within an orbit the size of Mercury's around our Sun.

The three habitable-zone worlds orbiting Gliese 667C mark two major milestones in the search for exoplanets. This is the first discovery, outside of our solar system, of three planets orbiting in the habitable zone of a single star. It is also the first time a relatively low-mass star, such as Gliese 667C, has been determined to host several planets in its habitable zone.

The discovery of the additional planets orbiting Gliese 667C was due to data gathered by numerous telescopes, including the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope in Chile, Magellan II Telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher at ESO's 3.6-meter telescope in Chile, and the Keck telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The discovery will be described in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Original ESO press release: http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1328/
???  ??

Cocoa Beware

[youtube:2fmsha73]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gflU5hO0MZw[/youtube:2fmsha73]

I thought this was pretty neat. Pretty dense planet wise compared to here.

I have no idea how life would evolve on tidally locked planets. There is no day or night time, although I suppose if the animals/aliens/creatures lived underground or on the dark side then that would be similar to some life here.

Youd need a dynamic atmosphere to even out the temperature planet wide for that.

Youssuf Ramadan

Sweet. Thanks for the info  :-D

Solitary

If another planet isn't dynamic and active it can't evolve or support life. Solitary
There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.

SGOS

Quote from: "Jmpty"New observations of the star system Gliese 667 have led to the discovery of three planets inside a star's habitable zone, the region in which liquid water might exist. Gliese 667 is a trinary system that includes three stars, Gliese 667A, 667B, and 667C, and is situated 22 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius.

With three stars, the Gliese 667 system is quite different from our own solar system, and yet there is now a crucial similarity: three planets in a habitable zone. In our solar system, Earth is of course located squarely in our Sun's habitable zone, with Venus scraping the inner edge of the zone and Mars the outer edge. In the Gliese 667 system, three planets are now known to orbit Gliese 667C inside the star's habitable zone.

Previous studies had identified three planets orbiting Gliese 667C, with one in the habitable zone. The new study, led by Guillem Anglada-Escudé of the University of Göttingen, Germany and Mikko Tuomi of the University of Hertfordshire, UK, has determined that Gliese 667C actually hosts seven planets: two hotter worlds orbiting too close to the star to be in the habitable zone, the three planets in the habitable zone, and two more frigid planets orbiting farther from the star.

The two hot worlds and the three habitable-zone planets are likely tidally locked, meaning that one side of the planet always faces its star and the other side faces away and is perpetually shrouded in darkness. The three habitable-zone planets are all super-Earths, more massive than Earth but less massive than Uranus or Neptune.

Because Gliese 667C is only approximately one-third as massive as our Sun, its planets' orbits are far smaller than those in our solar system and its habitable zone is closer, within an orbit the size of Mercury's around our Sun.

The three habitable-zone worlds orbiting Gliese 667C mark two major milestones in the search for exoplanets. This is the first discovery, outside of our solar system, of three planets orbiting in the habitable zone of a single star. It is also the first time a relatively low-mass star, such as Gliese 667C, has been determined to host several planets in its habitable zone.

The discovery of the additional planets orbiting Gliese 667C was due to data gathered by numerous telescopes, including the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope in Chile, Magellan II Telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher at ESO's 3.6-meter telescope in Chile, and the Keck telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The discovery will be described in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Original ESO press release: http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1328/
So are the other two stars in the system relevant to anything happening here, or are they just kind of hanging there off in the distance as in the photographic representation?

NeoLogic26

I would give up half of my remaining lifespan for a warp ship that could get me to these star systems with Earth-like planets. I want to explore them and the thought that they are out there and I will more than likely never see them is just depressing.

"For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday and lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you." - Neil deGrasse Tyson

Roger5462

Today's discovery is very cool indeed.  They also just discovered some hot super earths within the last six hours.  I believe that there is certainly animal life around one in one million stars and maybe a civilization around one in one billion stars.  It is crazy for people to think that we are the only ones in this vast universe.  But then again, those people don't accept evolution either.

Jmpty

Interesting article on life evolving on tidally locked planets

http://www.astrobio.net/exclusive/4386/ ... hospitable
???  ??

dawiw

#8


This planet is very near to the star and it's blue.
I remain unconvinced by any claims anyone has ever made about the existence or the power of a divine force operating in the universe."
-Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Plu

QuoteI would give up half of my remaining lifespan for a warp ship that could get me to these star systems with Earth-like planets. I want to explore them

You realise that these planets are most likely just barren rocks, right? I mean; Venus and Mars are in the habitable zone, and look how habitable those are.

PopeyesPappy

Quote from: "dawiw"[ Image ]

This planet is very near to the star and it's blue.
I saw this yesterday and thought it was very cool. The first planet outside our system that we have been able to determine the color. The raining liquid glass part was pretty interesting too.
Save a life. Adopt a Greyhound.

Colanth

Quote from: "Plu"
QuoteI would give up half of my remaining lifespan for a warp ship that could get me to these star systems with Earth-like planets. I want to explore them

You realise that these planets are most likely just barren rocks, right? I mean; Venus and Mars are in the habitable zone, and look how habitable those are.
We have life on Earth living at -120 °F and at over 750 °F.  So Venus is just a bit too high for life as we've seen it, but it's imaginable that life at hydrothermal vents could evolve to live at a little higher temperature.  Since Mars seldom gets colder than -150 °F at the poles, anything living in Antarctica that doesn't need oxygen should do fine on the Martian equator or even halfway to the Martian poles.
Afflicting the comfortable for 70 years.
Science builds skyscrapers, faith flies planes into them.

spelaeologus

#12
No intelligence in here... disappointed...

stromboli

Earth is just one example of how life evolved. And another ghost with 0 posts. WTF?

Plu

Quote from: "Colanth"
Quote from: "Plu"
QuoteI would give up half of my remaining lifespan for a warp ship that could get me to these star systems with Earth-like planets. I want to explore them

You realise that these planets are most likely just barren rocks, right? I mean; Venus and Mars are in the habitable zone, and look how habitable those are.
We have life on Earth living at -120 °F and at over 750 °F.  So Venus is just a bit too high for life as we've seen it, but it's imaginable that life at hydrothermal vents could evolve to live at a little higher temperature.  Since Mars seldom gets colder than -150 °F at the poles, anything living in Antarctica that doesn't need oxygen should do fine on the Martian equator or even halfway to the Martian poles.

Even if they do have bacterial life... it's still comparable to exploring Mars. One big, mostly barren piece of rock. While it might be fascinating to explore, you'd probably tire of them pretty quickly.

I'm also not sure whether it's feasible for things that do not need oxygen to be spawned like that, although I've  not really looked into the topic. Don't they still need certain circumstances to first appear? Like an atmosphere and electric discharges and such? (Granted I'm not very schooled in a-biogenesis unfortunately.)