swestrup | Potentially habitable planet found

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Roughly a decade earlier than I expected, astronomers have announced the discovery of a potentially habitable planet in another solar system. Of course, using the same set of criteria (size, temperature zone), Mars counts as 'potentially habitable', so its a bit early to send colony ships. Still, its just over 20 light years away, so it will be one of the first places we visit, if we ever get out of this Solar system.

Then again 'Habitable' might still be generous. It probably has a 5g surface gravity, and its year is only 13 (Earth) days long.

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From:

sps.livejournal.com

Well, you'll get lots of presents. And I think the surface gravity will only be 3.something, because of the slightly larger radius (or does nearfield behave differently than I think?).

From:

swestrup

No, you're right. I hadn't considered the effect of the increased radius of the planet.

From:

swestrup

Back-of-the-envelope gives me only 2.13g surface gravity. This is confirmed by the wikipedia article on the planet.

Of course, at this stage, many of these numbers are based on measurements and assumptions with large error bars.

From:

grimmwire.livejournal.com

The AP article says 1.6 G on the surface.

This exoplanet is an interesting find. I note that Gliese 581 also has a Jovian that orbits even closer to the star than 581c's 0.071 AU. Which is interesting because such close Jovians are supposed to form further out and spiral in towards the star -- which is supposed to "clear out" any terrestrial worlds on the way, destabilizing their orbits. And yet here's 581c....

I suppose it's possible 581c also formed in the outer system and spiralled inward -- which would suggest it's an icy world.

From:

swestrup

Its kind hard to get a consistent value of G when we're not yet terribly sure of the radius OR the mass, so I'm sure there are a range of possible values.

As for it being an icy world that spiraled in, yes, I've read about that being a concern. Its kinda hard to tell with our current level of technology though.