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The first potentially habitable alien planets we ever found -- might not actually exist
We've had our bags packed for a (hopefully) Richard Branson-led expedition to the "potentially habitable" exoplanets circling Gliese 581 for years, but there's one small hitch: new research indicates some of them might not be there. In 2007, astronomers observing the star detected four planets, with two of them in the so-called "Goldilocks zone" (not too close to the star and too hot, not too far and too cold) including one called 581d. Later in 2010, they added two more planets to the tally, including Gliese 581g, which had even better odds for life, and since then we've found others. The problem is that despite artists depictions of what a planet might be like, scientists are really just looking at "squiggles on a graph." That's what the leader of the new research, Paul Robertson said, as his team found that the measurements used to detect planets could be affected by things like sunspots, leading false indications of the two planets listed above. [Image credit: Lynette Cook / NASA]
Scientists discover planet capable of supporting life, Richard Branson calls dibs on it
A team of planet hunters from UC Santa Cruz (not to be confused with Dog The Bounty Hunter) have found a planet three times the size of our own that might support life. Scientists have been using the HIRES spectrometer on the Keck I Telescope to keep an eye on the Gliese 581 red dwarf star in the constellation Libra for about 11 years now, and among its many virtues have learned that the planet Gliese 581g has the potential for life. Indeed, it is being billed as "the first potentially habitable exoplanet," meaning that it's in "the zone" where it's neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water. Although it's rather Earth-like in some respects, there are some stunning differences: for instance, the planet doesn't spin on its axis, so one side is always dark (and probably 25 degrees below zero) while the other side is probably rather pleasant, or "shirt-sleeve weather," as one of the discoverers, Steven Vogt, put it. Indeed, he goes on to estimate that "chances for life on this planet are 100 percent." Those are pretty good odds! There's no word on when Virgin Galactic will be offering vacation packages to this hit destination, or even when it will be feasible to make the 20 light year voyage. Artist's rendition after the break.
