Discover Gliese 581g - Just 20 Light-Years Away!

[waht]

Amazing discovery. Carl Sagan would be thrilled to read this article. Gliese 581g is only 20 light-years away. It would make a nice weekend getaway spot.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/earth-like-exoplanet-possibly-habitable-100929.html

An Earth-size planet has been spotted orbiting a nearby star at a distance that would makes it not too hot and not too cold — comfortable enough for life to exist, researchers announced today (Sept. 29).

If confirmed, the exoplanet, named Gliese 581g, would be the first Earth-like world found residing in a star's habitable zone — a region where a planet's temperature could sustain liquid water on its surface

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Wow!

 

[berkeman]

So do we aim some big antennas and start transmitting? CQ, CQ, ...

Or do we heed Hawking's warning, and stay silent...

 

[cronxeh]

Can we send Hawking there, as a probe?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

So do we aim some big antennas and start transmitting? CQ, CQ, ...

? Don't you mean, ET, ET...?

Or do we heed Hawking's warning, and stay silent...

If there is anything to worry about, which is highly unlikely even under the most exotic scenarios one can imagine, they already know we're here. Right about now they should be watching Cheers, Roseanne, and Cosby.

 

[berkeman]

Can we send Hawking there, as a probe?

OMG, you owe me a new keyboard!

 

[waht]

If there are intelligent aliens on that planet then they are probably watching George H. Bush's inauguration by now.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

If there are intelligent aliens on that planet then they are probably watching George H. Bush's inauguration by now.

Aren't you off by a decade or so?

Edit: Oh, H!

 

[DaveC426913]

g?

G?

I haven't heard anything about e or f!

I'm going to have to update my "[URL 581 Primer

[/URL]

 

[waht]

Edit: Oh, H!

Basically an equivalent Arecibo sized dish located 20 light-years away could easily pick up lots of leakage signals from earth.

 

[waht]

g?

G?

I haven't heard anything about e or f!

Gliese is now a six planet system.

 

[Newai]

? Don't you mean, ET, ET...?



If there is anything to worry about, which is highly unlikely even under the most exotic scenarios one can imagine, they already know we're here. Right about now they should be watching Cheers, Roseanne, and Cosby.

Cable theft will not be tolerated. Time Warner is already on it.

 

[DaveC426913]

Gliese is now a six planet system.

Huh. Well, it hasn't hit http://exoplanet.eu/ yet...

 

[DaveC426913]

g will be a one-face planet. It will bake on its eternal day side, freeze on its eternal night side and be toasty warm in a band between the two.

 

[JaredJames]

Basically an equivalent Arecibo sized dish located 20 light-years away could easily pick up lots of leakage signals from earth.

Poor buggers, I cringe at 90's TV shows all the time. They'd have it all to come...

 

[DaveC426913]

Hm. Not going to be a pleasant place to vaykay.

3-4x the mass, 1.2-1.4x the radius.

So gravity there will be about 2x Earth's, with a margin of error either way.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Basically an equivalent Arecibo sized dish located 20 light-years away could easily pick up lots of leakage signals from earth.

I thought you meant GWB for a moment. I was questioning the year.

 

[Newai]

Poor buggers, I cringe at 90's TV shows all the time. They'd have it all to come...

Although, we might get better programming from their side. I suppose there might be broadcasts they'd be equally embarrassed by.

 

[slide_Rules]

Although, we might get better programming from their side. I suppose there might be broadcasts they'd be equally embarrassed by.

Or they've progressed to the point where they choose to remain hidden and we can't detect them.

I've considered writing a zoo hypothesis short story about aliens, ~100 l.y. distant, ~5000 years more advanced than we currently are. I'd focus on their internal debates over the few thousand years of observations - whether to intervene, to send probes, the best ways to observe without being detected...

 

[berkeman]

Basically an equivalent Arecibo sized dish located 20 light-years away could easily pick up lots of leakage signals from earth.

But Arecibo is side-looking, isn't it? Do we have anything big that can orient on our polar axis?

I wonder which way this new planet's polar axis points...

 

[D H]

g will be a one-face planet. It will bake on its eternal day side, freeze on its eternal night side and be toasty warm in a band between the two.

Yeah. Calling this an Earth-like planet is a bit like the joke about the two statisticians who went duck hunting.

 

[berkeman]

Yeah. Calling this an Earth-like planet is a bit like the joke about the two statisticians who went duck hunting.

Thank goodness for Google!

http://www.wildbirds.com/dnn/AboutUs/BirdJokes/tabid/692/Default.aspx

Two statisticians went duck hunting. A mallard flew overhead and one statistician fired just to the right of the bird. The other statistician fired just to the left of the bird. They turned to each other in glee, and congratulated each other... "On average, he's dead!", they cried!

 

[DaveC426913]

Let's call it Earthesque.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

 

[schteev]

Just because an environment is condusive to carbon based life (which can't possibly be the only type of life out there in such a massive universe) doesn't mean that
1. It has evolved
2. It is more intelligent than simple bacteria or even something as complex as a rabbit
3. It hasn't become so advanced it has effectively wiped itself out

The universe is approximately 14 billion years old, and this particular planet is surely a few billion years old at least, so even if it did have life at one stage it's not a certainty that life still exists there.

 

[Angry Citizen]

I can't imagine any significant life existing on this planet. If the planet has any sort of atmosphere, then temperature fluctuations would vary wildly with the wind.

 

[qraal]

Getting there in a decent time frame will be quite a trick. Need to dig out my trusty Bussard Ramscoop and proton-fusion reactor I've stashed in the backyard shed...

 

[Garth]

The planet being discussed is actually Gliese c, however according to http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1005/1005.5098v1.pdf we ought to be looking at Gliese d!

With larger than Earth masses we can expect thick atmospheres on both planets and a substantial green house effect. This would make Gliese c too hot and put Gilese d into the 'Goldilocks zone'. But note it has an eccentricity of 0.38 so the temperature would vary widely.

Garth

 

[qraal]

The planet being discussed is actually Gliese c, however according to http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1005/1005.5098v1.pdf we ought to be looking at Gliese d!

Garth

Garth you missed the news! There's two new planets in the system and one is right between planets c & d. Thus it's Gliese 581 g we're talking about.

 

[Garth]

That explains the confusion - it was all mine!

My bad - sorry I'll keep out of it in future,

Garth

 

[Orion1]

abiogenetic RNA...

The Gliese 581 star system

The Gliese 581 star system is 7 to 10 billion years old, compared to the Sol star system which is 4.57 billion years old and the age of Earth is 4.54 billion years old.

The oldest ancient fossil microbe-like objects are dated to be 3.5 billion years old.

Gliese 581 g is the fourth known planet in its star system from its parent star.

The planet has an orbital period of just under 37 days, orbiting at a distance of 0.146 AU from its parent star. It is believed to have a mass of 3.1 to 4.3 times that of the Earth and a radius of 1.3 to 2.0 times that of Earth (1.3 to 1.5 times Earth's if predominantly rocky, 1.7 to 2.0 times Earth's if predominantly water ice). Surface gravity is expected to be in the range of 1.1 to 1.7 times Earth's.

If a self-replicating strand of abiogenetic RNA formed there, it would of had 2 to 2.8 times the amount of abiogenetic evolutionary time than that has already occurred on Earth.

Theoretically, there could be highly genetically evolved life forms there, far more evolved than anything that currently exists on Earth, at least with respect to Earth's current bacteria genetic codes.

The most evolved Earth bacteria would genetically be considered 'primitive', compared to Gliese 581 g bacteria.

Gliese 581 g is 20.5 light years away and is also within range for a Panspermia 'courier' to travel the distance in Earth geologic time in 3.5 to 6.5 billion years.

The Panspermia 'courier' velocity differential would be 3.1 to 5.8 lightyears per billion years.

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_581"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_581_g"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenesis"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia"

 

[DaveC426913]

Just because an environment is condusive to carbon based life (which can't possibly be the only type of life out there in such a massive universe) doesn't mean that
... 2. It is more intelligent than simple bacteria or even something as complex as a rabbit

I'd be ecstatic with something as complex as a rabbit.

Sounds like you think the only worthwhile thing is intelligent life...

3. It hasn't become so advanced it has effectively wiped itself out

No one's even talking about intelligent life, but even the ruins of a civilization would be a treasure untold value.

I can't imagine any significant life existing on this planet. If the planet has any sort of atmosphere, then temperature fluctuations would vary wildly with the wind.

Actually, the fact that it is tidally-locked suggests it might have environment that are more stable than Earth. 581g has zones that are temperate all year. No winters to freeze out.

 

[Orion1]

No one's even talking about intelligent life, but even the ruins of a civilization would be a treasure of untold value.

What about bacterial genetic codes that are 2 to 3 times more advanced than anything found on Earth?

Would that also be a treasure of untold value?

Actually, the fact that it is tidally-locked suggests it might have environment that are more stable than Earth. 581g has zones that are temperate all year. No winters to freeze out.

In other words, a perfectly ideal incubator for bacterial evolution, or other higher evolved lifeforms.

 

[ViewsofMars]

The National Science Foundation has a webcast with Steven Vogt and Paul Butler, leaders of a team that discovered the first potentially habitable exoplanet.
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_videos.jsp?cntn_id=117765&media_id=68454&org=NSF

Also from The National Science Foundation on September 29,
2010:

A team of planet hunters led by astronomers at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz), and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA, has announced the discovery of an Earth-sized planet (three times the mass of Earth) orbiting a nearby star at a distance that places it squarely in the middle of the star's "habitable zone," where liquid water could exist on the planet's surface. If confirmed, this would be the most Earth-like exoplanet yet discovered and the first strong case for a potentially habitable one.

This is clearly one of the most exciting areas of science these days" said Ed Seidel, assistant director for NSF's Mathematical and Physical Sciences directorate. "If we do discover life outside our planet, it would perhaps be the most significant discovery of all time."

To astronomers, a "potentially habitable" planet is one that could sustain life, not necessarily one that humans would consider a nice place to live. Habitability depends on many factors, but liquid water and an atmosphere are among the most important.
Please read on . . .
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=117765&org=NSF&preview=false

A quote from The Lick-Carnegie Exoplanet Survey: A 3.1M Planet in the Habitable Zone of the Nearby M3V Star Gliese 581 by Steven S. Vogt, R. Paul Butler, E. J. Rivera, N. Haghighipour, Gregory W. Henry, and Michael H. Williamson:

Confirmation by other teams through additional high-precision RVs would be most welcome. But if GJ 581g is confirmed by further RV scrutiny, the mere fact that a habitable planet has been detected this soon, around such a nearby star, suggests that could well be on the order of a few tens of percent, and thus that either we have just been incredibly lucky in this early detection, or we are truly on the threshold of a second Age of Discovery.

SSV gratefully acknowledges support from NSF grant AST-0307493. RPB gratefully acknowledges support from NASA OSS Grant NNX07AR40G, the NASA Keck PI program, and from the Carnegie Institution of Washington. NH acknowledges support from the NASA Astrobiology Institute under Cooperative Agreement NNA04CC08A at the Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, and NASA EXOB grant NNX09AN05G. GWH and MHW acknowledge support by NASA, NSF, Tennessee State University, and the State of Tennessee through its Centers of Excellence program. The work herein is based on observations obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated jointly by the University of California and the California Institute of Technology, and we thank the UC-Keck and NASA-Keck Time Assignment Committees for their support. We also acknowledge the contributions of fellow members of our previous California-Carnegie Exoplanet team in helping to obtain some of the earlier RVs presented in this paper.

We also wish to extend our special thanks to those of Hawaiian ancestry on whose sacred mountain of Mauna Kea we are privileged to be guests. Without their generous hospitality, the Keck observations presented herein would not have been possible. Finally, SSV would like to extend a very special thanks to his wife Zarmina Dastagir for her patience, encouragement, and wise counsel. And even though, if confirmed, the habitable planet
presented herein will officially be referred to by the name GJ 581g, it shall always be known to SSV as ”Zarmina’s World”.
http://www.ucolick.org/~vogt/ms_press-1.pdf

Zarmina's World! I like that.

 

[D H]

I'd be ecstatic with something as complex as a rabbit.

I'd be ecstatic with any life at all, let alone a rabbit.

Actually, the fact that it is tidally-locked suggests it might have environment that are more stable than Earth. 581g has zones that are temperate all year. No winters to freeze out.

A very stable environment could, I think, be a very bad thing for life in this case. Water vapor that falls on the dark side in the form of snow would well stay there a long time without a transport mechanism (e.g., weather). Eventually all of the water could migrate to the dark side. End result: No liquid water, no life.There are, in my mind, too many unknowns to be jumping up and down about this planet as of yet. We don't know if it has an atmosphere. If it does, we don't know it's density, clarity, and makeup. We don't know if it has water, period, let alone liquid water. We don't know if the orbit is nearly circular or not. All of these things are worthy of study because this is the best candidate found yet and because the probability of CHON-based life hinges on these unknowns.