Zarmina's World
10/1/10
Red dwarf star Gliese 581, located only 20 light years from the constellation Libra, has received much deserved attention from astronomers recently! What's really significant/incredible is that fact that through earthbound telescopes, we have discovered multiple planets orbiting this cool sun, two at least close to it's habitable zone. (Where liquid water can be present on a earth-like planet's surface.) Steven Vogt and Paul Butler have detected that there's another planet and this one is squarely in the system's habitable zone! Data includes that the planet has a 37 day orbit, and orbital radius of only 0.15 AU and a mass 3.1 times that of Earth's. This is a really incredible discovery. People have been arguing for ages about whether there could be life on an other planet and even if there isn't, the fact that it could be potentially inhabited is amazing in itself! The fact that Zamina's world is so close by suggests that there could be many more in the Milky Way galaxy.
No comments:
Post a Comment