Gliese 581 c, Possible Earth-like Planet

Rather than finding anything on the sun-like star on other people's blogs i found a ton of blog posting on this earth-like planet instead by other bloggers. There is a new Earth-like planet that has been discovered by European astronomers, using a telescope in La Silla in the Chilean Andes, located in the constellation Libra. It is truly a great discovery the first possible planet containing water and possible life. Its sun is a third the size of ours, and 50 times colder. This planet known as Gliese 581 c, is closer to its sun but is still the same range of temperature as we have here on earth, between 32 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit (0 and 40 degrees Celsius).

This thought of a planet reflecting our own is so insane to think about. I think it would be amazing to find forms of life, we could also learn so much from this as I said in my other blog, just observations could teach us a great deal. I was looking for information on the newly discovered planet and when I went to read about it, this is all I could find, everyone else was blogging about Gliese 581 c.

Possible Planet discovered orbiting a Sunlike Star

From a photo taken by the Gemini North located on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea, they have discovered a possible planet that is 7 to 12 times as massive as Jupiter. It orbits the star 1RXS J160929.1-210524 and is 30 billion from its star. The New York Times reported that it will take years for scientists to determine if it is an actual planet. They determine this by whether or not it travels through space with its sun. The huge question on scientists mind is its vast distance from its sun, it is 60 time further from it sun then Jupiter is from the Sun.

This is a huge step in discovering another planet that exists like our own, another blue planet like earth. Finding another planet that supports life would be one of the greatest if not the greatest discovery of all time. We could learn infinite amounts of knowledge just from observations let alone hands on learning and experimenting. This could also be a huge problem if we ever did discover another planet, what if there hostile and we become engaged in an intergalactic war, which I feel we would be defeated if based on how far along there technological advances are. If the planet is still in its early stages of formation of single celled organism, or even cave men like species our presence could have large negative impacts on the development of a new planet. It would be like us playing god and messing with natural growth and harmony.