The first planet outside the system that may be friendly to life has been discovered

The planet, the smallest discovered so far, is only one and a half times the size of Earth but orbits a red dwarf


For the first time, astronomers have discovered a planet outside the solar system, which has the potential to sustain life, in particular the heat measurements on its surface are similar to those of the Earth. The researchers who discovered it described yesterday (Tuesday) that this is a major step in the search for life in the universe. This is a team of researchers from Europe who used the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile.

The size of the planet is one and a half times the size of the Earth and 5 times the mass. "Super-Earth" is called Gliese 581C (Gliese 581 C), after the star named Gliese 581, a dim red dwarf located 20.5 light years from the Earth and having a mass of about one third of the Sun. "We estimate that the average temperature in it ranges from 0 to 40 degrees Celsius," said Stephane Audrey, the chief scientist from Geneva who signed the discovery document, and hence they allow for the existence of water in a liquid state and possibly life forms as well. Audrey added that "the radius of the star is 1.5 times larger than the Earth and the models we conducted predict that it is covered with rocks like the Earth or oceans."

Glace 581C is the smallest planet discovered so far. It is located 15 times closer to its sun than Earth is to the sun, one year on this planet is equal to 13 Earth days. Because the red dwarf is 50 times dimmer than our Sun and much colder, planets moving this close to the Sun will remain within the habitable zone, the spherical environment around a star, within which planets have temperatures that can sustain liquid water on the surface.

"There are many things that are still unknown about the new planet, which may exclude it from the list of life-friendly places once we know a little more about it, and the requirements for life-friendliness do not mean much if Mars is also included in the list of potential planets - the necessary conditions are a size similar to Earth , and temperatures that would allow the existence of liquid water. However, this is the first planet outside the solar system that meets these standards.

"This is a significant step on the way to finding life in the universe," says astronomer Michel Mayur from the University of Geneva, one of 11 European scientists on the team that discovered the planet. "It's a nice discovery, but we still have a lot of questions."

The results of the study have not yet been published but they have been submitted for publication in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. Alan Butt, of the Carnegie Institution in Washington, whose team has been competing in the hunt for Earth-like planets, called it "a major milestone in this field."

The planet was discovered by the European Southern Observatory in La Silla, Chile with a telescope equipped with a special device that splits the light to detect oscillations at different wavelengths. These fluctuations can reveal the existence of a planet.

For information on the ESO website

Comments

  1. Itzik, I don't mean to offend, but in my opinion, what you think in the context of the discovery of life and its development on other planets, and what else you are sure we are alone, I would say it is a bit ignorant not to believe in such a thing. We haven't seen and we will see in the future. We don't know what will happen anyway. Anyone who thinks we are alone and there is no such thing as other life will develop on stars that humanity has not yet eaten due to poor and undeveloped technology is the most innocent and illogical thing to say but this is my opinion

  2. A question for Itzik: Where exactly did the sons of God mentioned in the Torah live?
    (and see below) if not on other planets?!

    In the beginning of chapter six

    * Verse XNUMX: And the sons of God saw the daughters of men, for behold, goodness; And they took wives for them, of all whom they chose.
    * Verse XNUMX: The Philistines were in the land, in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came to the daughters of men, and gave birth to them: these are the men who have ever lived, man The name

  3. My father opened a shop with this name
    In Be'er Sheva in the new Van Plaza complex
    Beautiful and original name lol

  4. My father and Alli Shalom, it is a red dwarf not a red giant, at first I saw that it says a lot of red dwarf and "in the wake of the star named Gleis 581, a dim red giant located 20.5 light years from the Earth and having a mass of about one third of the Sun's mass." A red giant, I checked on Wikipedia and it turned out that the star is a red dwarf, I recommend my father to correct it and I want to tell Eli that "a red dwarf that was once a sun that exploded" is not true, a red dwarf = a very small star.

  5. The riddle is simple if the star orbits at such a distance a red dwarf that was once a sun that exploded then it is likely that everything there has evaporated as expected our earth has nothing much to find there.

  6. A. The fact that I mentioned that the Channel 7 reporter said this, does not mean that I believe it. My answer to him was - even if there are no humans there, this is good news, it is enough even if there are plants or even bacteria, plants or bacteria have no meaning for freedom of choice or not. I just meant to say that there are religious people who believe that there is more life in the universe.

  7. BSD

    Regarding the presence of life in other planets according to the Torah:

    The good news is that life does exist on other planets
    And this is explained in several places in the Torah (Tract Moed Ketan in the Babylonian Talmud and other places):
    The name of the star at the time of the Torah is "Meroz" and Rashi specifically says that it has residents. Moreover, those "residents" came to the aid of Sisera in the Barak-Sesra war as described in the song of Deborah
    And so the prophetess Deborah cursed them with the words: "The light of a rose, the light of its inhabitants"...

    My father nicely pointed out that these creatures do not have free choice because free choice was only given to humans here on our planet.

  8. All the scientists who are looking for life on another planet are quacks who don't understand anything, who are only looking for publicity.
    Notice what happens here:
    As a matter of fact, the country has warmed by two degrees.
    At the South Pole, a small glacier is moving and threatening life on Earth.
    In Brazil, there are 100 dunams of forest in Rio, and this endangers our planet.
    Greenhouse gases from a fuel incinerator will destroy all life.
    And more.
    Every little change disrupts life here.
    Therefore, the sphere capable of creating life is extremely small and moves about the current shape of the solar system.
    For life to exist, the temperature range will be 17-43 degrees. Gravity 0.8-1.6.
    The amount of water is no less than 50% as it is on Earth.
    And the most important thing is that the area is in a quiet place long enough to generate life.
    Please note that we are at the edge of the galaxy which is a relatively quiet place and yet threatened by asteroids of their own.
    So, all the quack "scientists", get down to earth.

  9. Hello Itzik, yesterday I was interviewed on this topic by Channel 7 and the host claimed that according to the Book of Zohar there is another planet that has humans on it, and the only difference is that they do not have the right to vote. Since everything can be found in the scriptures, if you want, and it was a live broadcast, I contented myself with the answer that even if there were plants or even bacteria on the same planet that was discovered and not humans, this would be good news.
    So religion is probably a flexible thing, after all.

  10. It's all well and good for fun, but life will not be found on other stars because there simply isn't any - how can we know? The creator of the world gave this to the Jewish people 3300 years ago.

  11. Observations will never answer the fact if there is life on this or that planet (unless it is a civilization that changes the face of the planet and/or is able to communicate with us as mentioned). First, one must overcome if given the number one obstacle - the disparity of the vast distances. In this case about 20 light years.

  12. A huge step for humanity that is not yet aware of the meanings
    The greatness lies in discovery.
    The next step will collect a large number of Earth-like stars
    And future telescopes will capture their exact image

  13. It is impossible to find life in the universe with the help of telescopes, the only way is communication. Even today's advanced telescope vision has flaws and the universe has unobservable stars.

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