Gliese 581c

A new Earth-like planet?

Aliens, outer space and life on other planets have fascinated most of us over the years. Just remember how

 you gazed at the night sky and wished that you could soar off and live on one

 of the millions of stars or planets which you can see glimmering hundreds and thousands of light years away? A recent discovery in space exploration has shed some light on making this simple dream of yours a reality some day. The information

surrounding it is simply amazing! Let's go into more details about this new discovery. The search for habitable (livable) regions was mainly focused on our solar system. But, for the first time, space scientists have found a potentially habitable planet outside our solar system, which has temperatures like our Earth and this is considered as a great breakthrough in the search for 'life in the universe'. This planet was discovered by a team of the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland, and it was announced on April 24, 2007. This was done using the European Southern Observatory's telescope in La Silla, Chile, which has a special instrument that splits light to

find shapes in different wave lengths. The planet which is named Gliese 581c, orbits the 'red dwarf star' Gliese 581 like the Earth orbits the Sun. Until now, 220 planets which astronomers have found, have the 'Goldilocks Problem'. That is either they are too hot, too cold, just gaseous and so on. But, this new discovery seems just right. But, before you dream of going there, here are some weird and also exciting experiences that you may encounter up there. You will suddenly feel heavier and you will have a great sight of the sky. The newly discovered planet is 14 times closer to the star it revolves around, which means the 'red dwarf star' is twenty times larger than our Moon! Girls won't like this planet much because the birthdays are going to add up pretty fast since the planet orbits its star every thirteen days! All this sounds really thrilling and it is indeed a fascinating discovery. But, thousands of questions are yet to be answered if this is going to be another Earth to us. Travelling this distance in a human lifetime alone is one such problem!

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Physical characteristics of Gliese 581c

* Mass

The calculation of the mass of the planet has been done depending on the other planets that belong to the Gliese 581c system and on the inclination of the orbital plane with respect to us. However, considering the mass of Gliese 581b which astronomers have previously found, and the assumed mass of the Gliese 581d, the mass of Gliese 581c is estimated as 5.03 times that of Earth.

* Distance

Astronomically speaking, this planet is close to us. It is 20.5 light years far from Earth. In more familiar terms, it is at 194 trillion km or 120 trillion miles from Earth.

* Size

It is still not certain whether this is a rocky planet or a frozen ice ball, and estimating the size depends on these.

However, if it is thought as a rocky planet, it has a radius 50 per cent greater than Earth. If it is to be an icy or watery planet, the radius would be even bigger, but less than twice the size of Earth.

* Gravity

Again, this is dependant on the nature of the planet. If rocky, gravity is expected to be 2.2 times the Earth's gravity and if otherwise, it would be around 1.25 times the Earth's gravity. So, if it is rocky, a person weighing 100 pounds on Earth would weigh 220 pounds over there!

* Age

The Gliese 581 system is estimated to be 4.3 billion years old. For comparison, our solar system is considered 4.57 billion years old.

* Temperature

The research team believes the average temperature to be somewhere between 32 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit and that set off celebrations among astronomers. But what's in its atmosphere is still unknown and if it's too thick, that could make the planet's surface temperature too hot.

* Liquid water

This is the most important topic when it comes to habitability. Liquid water could exist on the planet since it is in the 'habitable zone' of the space around the star. But, there is no direct evidence yet.

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Fast facts - Red dwarf stars

You may be wondering what a 'red dwarf star' is. These stars are low energy, tiny stars that give a dim red light.

Therefore, they are cooler compared to our Sun and they last longer than stars like our Sun. They have a surface temperature of less than 3,500 Kelvins. Our Sun has a surface temperature of around 5,500 Kelvins. Until this discovery, astronomers had not believed that red dwarfs could have conditions suitable for human living.

About 80 per cent of the stars near Earth are said to be red dwarfs.

Compiled by Aravinda Dassanayake