The Discovery of Gliese 581c
25 April 2007A discovery revealed to the world on the April 24th, 2007, Gliese 581c is being heralded as the most probable candidate for a "Second Earth" to date. An older planet, the possibility for life is much higher than on any previous planetary discoveries, claim scientists. The discovery was made by HARPS (High Accuracy Radial Velocity for Planetary Searcher), a very precise and accurate spectrograph.
Facts:
1.) Discovered by scietists at Grenoble University in France.
2.) Gravity — Approximately 1.6 times that of Earth.
3.) Atmosphere — it has one! It's composition is (so far) unknown.
4.) Small — only about 1.5 times the diameter of the Earth.
5.) Relatively Close — Gilese 581c is approx. 20 light years away (120.5 trillion miles!); a distance making the planet available to further observation and analysis.
6.) "Goldilocks Zone" — temperatures range from approximately 0 to 40 degrees Celsius, making liquid water on the planet's surface a possibility.
7.) Sun — Red Stars mean lower temperatures. This allows the planet's proximity to it's sun not result in higher surface temperatures.
8.) 1 Gliese 581c Year = 13 Days of Earth Time (1 rotation around its sun!)
Stay tuned for future updates about Gliese!!!
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