Super-Earth Found in Its Star's Habitable Zone

[Ci7]

A team of astronomers at the Carnegie Institution for Science, in Washington, DC, announces the discovery of an extrasolar planet that is potentially habitable. In fact, this particular world is the most likely to support both liquid water and life of all the exoplanets that were confirmed thus far.

What's more, this candidate is located very close to Earth, at a distance of about 22 light-years. Experts have dubbed it GJ 667Cc and say that it lies right within its parent star's habitable zone. This means that it's located close enough to the star for temperatures to allow the existence of liquid water.

CIS investigators Guillem Anglada-Escud? and Paul Butler led the new research team, which also included astronomer Steven Vogt, from the University of California in Santa Cruz (UCSC), Space reports. The group found the world to belong to the super-Earth class.

It has a mass about 4.5 times that of Earth, and takes around 28 days to orbit its star, in the Scorpius constellation. This means that it's located relatively close to the celestial fireball. For comparison, Mercury takes 88 days to complete a full orbit around the Sun.

?This is basically our next-door neighbor. It's very nearby. There are only about 100 stars closer to us than this one. It's right smack in the habitable zone ? there's no question or discussion about it. It's not on the edge, it's right in there,? Vogt explains.

A statement released by Anglada-Escud? explains that the world is, in all likelihood, already supporting water on its surface. In addition, lifeforms may have also developed there over the eons, given the very Earth-like conditions.

?It's the Holy Grail of exoplanet research to find a planet around a star orbiting at the right distance so it's not too close where it would lose all its water and boil away, and not too far where it would all freeze,? Vogt says.

The reason why GJ 667C's habitable zone is so close to its surface is because it's an M-class dwarf star, whereas our Sun is a G-type yellow star. This means that the former produces less heat, therefore changing the location of the habitable zone closer to its surface.

Also interesting to note, the object is part of a triple-star system. ?The other stars are pretty far away, but they would look pretty nice in the sky,? Vogt explains. The entire system was established to feature a rather different chemical composition than our own, especially as far as metals go.

The star wasn't expected to be able to host planets, because metal concentrations in the system are low. ?These are the materials out of which planets form ? the grains of stuff that coalesce to eventually make up planets ? so we shouldn't have really expected this star to be a likely case for harboring planets,? Vogt explains.

The astronomy team used data collected by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the W.M. Keck Observatory and the Magellan II Telescope's Carnegie Planet Finder Spectrograph instrument to conduct the study. The work will appear in an upcoming issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Super-Earth-Found-in-Its-Star-s-Habitable-Zone-250397.shtml

[Muhammad Farrukh]

This is certainly great news.

Pack up people.

Its just 22 light years

[CPressland]

Wow, I best go fire up my rocket ship so I can go to an empty planet! It'll be like Minecraft all over again!

[The Teej]

I'm guessing this sun is much smaller then, if it's THAT close to the sun? Otherwise how would it be habitable, surely it would fry us alive if it was as big as our sun?

Also, this just in at GJ 667C's world news report: We've discovered a new planet similar to ours that's a mere 22 lightyears away, nick-named KA-923CZ. Our top explorers are being prepped to head out into our cryo-pods and should arrive there within 550 years,. Judging by the size of their sun and it's relation to KA-923CZ, we predict this journey would be only 24 years in their time. We also can predict it has very similar habitats to our own planet of Kaashtlat. Nevertheless, we're equipping our explorers with state of the art suits which will allow them to interface with KA-923CZ's atmosphere, regardless of its state.

Please bid our explorers good luck!

[Japlabot]

If there was life there, they would probably be intelligent as they have had more time in the habitable zone than us to evolve, they would have also had more time to develop spacecraft capable of reaching Earth, our planet is not as close to the sun and less gravity due to not being as large so I would say that the changes of them reaching us than us reaching them first would be far greater if there was any intelligent life there. Maybe they are already visiting us :alien:

[itylernallen]

This is nice and all, but a few things that caught my eye. "About 22 light-years away," we won't be getting there anytime soon. Even if we found out hot to travel the speed of light without being destroyed a person would need to be on there for a fourth of their life. Second, it takes this planet 28 days to ordbit the star and the planet is much larger than ours. We could not survive their because out bodies would not handle the massive amounts of gravity the planet would have.

It is great to find something like this, but nothing to get excited about just yet. I think we should be looking into solving our own problems on our own planet before we try to figure out how to get to another one so we can slowly destroy that one. :)

[MidnightDevil]

This is nice and all, but a few things that caught my eye. "About 22 light-years away," we won't be getting there anytime soon. Even if we found out hot to travel the speed of light without being destroyed a person would need to be on there for a fourth of their life. Second, it takes this planet 28 days to ordbit the star and the planet is much larger than ours. We could not survive their because out bodies would not handle the massive amounts of gravity the planet would have.

It is great to find something like this, but nothing to get excited about just yet. I think we should be looking into solving our own problems on our own planet before we try to figure out how to get to another one so we can slowly destroy that one. :)

I agree with fixing this planet before running into another one, however it is possible that the life there developed in a way to adapt the circunstances.

[Ci7]

This is nice and all, but a few things that caught my eye. "About 22 light-years away," we won't be getting there anytime soon. Even if we found out hot to travel the speed of light without being destroyed a person would need to be on there for a fourth of their life. Second, it takes this planet 28 days to ordbit the star and the planet is much larger than ours. We could not survive their because out bodies would not handle the massive amounts of gravity the planet would have.

It is great to find something like this, but nothing to get excited about just yet. I think we should be looking into solving our own problems on our own planet before we try to figure out how to get to another one so we can slowly destroy that one. :)

then just send the strongest earthlings to that planet (they would have kid strength upon arrival LOL ) , oh and don't forget to equip them with state of art rail guns so we can play the evil alien invader role :p

[Hum]

There are giants on GJ 667C -- who would eat humans like popcorn. :s

[Phantom Spaceman]

Super earth? Kal-El Is that you!?

[Astra.Xtreme]

It is great to find something like this, but nothing to get excited about just yet. I think we should be looking into solving our own problems on our own planet before we try to figure out how to get to another one so we can slowly destroy that one. :)

That's a really really naive perspective. So you're saying we should fire all the scientists, astronomers, and physicists and make them do something "useful"? We ARE trying to solve the problems here on Earth, but it's not that easy. What do you suggest we do then?

Seriously, enough with the "let's solve our problems first" mentality. I don't think it's possible to have a more ignorant and secluded mindset than that. /rant

I personally think this is awesome that we found this planet so close. This brings forth a whole new set of possibilities for finding life. Once we find other life, we can make religion obsolete, and all the wars can stop. :rofl: /s

[Hum]

^ Or at least view some good TV shows, from 22 lightyears away.

[Detection]

22 light years may as well be 22 million light years, we won't even get somewhere 1 light year away, damn, its dangerous and 50/50 if our rockets make it out of the atmosphere on a journey somewhere as close as the moon

Maybe in 1m years we`ll have the technology... From Dinosaurs to today is a big jump in technology, but travelling light years away in time for the passengers to outlive the journey is just crazy daydreams... metal crafts fuelled by exploding fire, not going to happen.

[BoredBozirini]

22 light years away? Thats only 440,000 years away in our current space ships, not that long.

[xpablo]

Send the Droids! by the time they arrive, we should've mastered Warp speed technology and have met the Vulcans, then we can focus on building the USS Enterprise.

[AJerman]

Oh good, I'm only 351 years old there!

[itylernallen]

That's a really really naive perspective. So you're saying we should fire all the scientists, astronomers, and physicists and make them do something "useful"? We ARE trying to solve the problems here on Earth, but it's not that easy. What do you suggest we do then?

Seriously, enough with the "let's solve our problems first" mentality. I don't think it's possible to have a more ignorant and secluded mindset than that. /rant

I personally think this is awesome that we found this planet so close. This brings forth a whole new set of possibilities for finding life. Once we find other life, we can make religion obsolete, and all the wars can stop. :rofl: /s

I'm naive? I think you should look in the mirror chap. And when did I say to fire anyone? Stop being a twit and putting words in my mouth please, it is very annoying. I am saying that we should focus more on protecting ourselves from the events that ARE going to happen that CAN really send us all back to the stone age or kill us all. Ya know, like that massive solar flare we are going to have in 2014 and the giant meteor (forget its name). Alsowe can make religion obsolete here. How? Stop indoctrinating the kids of the silly stories when they are to young to reason.

[MtnDewCodeRedFreak]

"Somewhere in a galaxy far far away...." we find a Super-Earth. :D

[Fred Derf Veteran]

22 light years away? Thats only 440,000 years away in our current space ships, not that long.

Yeah, the phrase "very close to Earth" works only in a relative sense.

You'd even have to wait an equal amount of time for the first robot ship to return word of what they found. The one thing that makes space travel impractical is that you could wait and send a second ship 100 years later and, assuming technology continues to improve, it would easily pass the first ship en route (thus making the first ship a waste of resources in the first place). However, by the same logic, you could wait another 100 years and have the third ship pass both the first and the second ships en route (etc...)

[Astra.Xtreme]

I'm naive? I think you should look in the mirror chap. And when did I say to fire anyone? Stop being a twit and putting words in my mouth please, it is very annoying. I am saying that we should focus more on protecting ourselves from the events that ARE going to happen that CAN really send us all back to the stone age or kill us all. Ya know, like that massive solar flare we are going to have in 2014 and the giant meteor (forget its name). Alsowe can make religion obsolete here. How? Stop indoctrinating the kids of the silly stories when they are to young to reason.

First of all, calm down... You clearly missed the "/s" on the last remark. Secondly, you clearly said "I think we should be looking into solving our own problems on our own planet..." which is implying that you don't think we should study our cosmos. It's not hard to conclude that from what you said. Care to provide some proof of this "massive" solar flare and "giant" meteor? To my knowledge, we have nothing to worry about for the rest of our lifetime. The solar activity is coming to a peak this year, but it's a known fact that solar activity has little effect to us on Earth except maybe some GPS disruption and some Aurora activity.

Also, no need to name call as it just makes you look like an immature child...

[Solid Knight]

Quadruple gravity would certainly screw us up if we tried to walk around on it for prolonged periods of time.

[Hum]

Maybe the super-Earth has Stargate technology.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

...

The solar activity is coming to a peak this year, but it's a known fact that solar activity has little effect to us on Earth except maybe some GPS disruption and some Aurora activity.

...

Very strong flares can fry satellites and sensitive equipment on the ground, but they're localised events, it won't fry everything in the world like in Escape from L.A.

And we only have a few minutes of warning in the case of solar flares, no idea who's predicting them 3 years in advance.

[rjones42455]

Just keep religion off of it, and everything will be fine.

[Jan Veteran]

If there was life there, they would probably be intelligent as they have had more time in the habitable zone than us to evolve, they would have also had more time to develop spacecraft capable of reaching Earth, our planet is not as close to the sun and less gravity due to not being as large so I would say that the changes of them reaching us than us reaching them first would be far greater if there was any intelligent life there. Maybe they are already visiting us :alien:

And thus Hum was born.