Found: The New Earth

Seems an Earth-like planet has been found about 20.5 light years away. This is exciting news! Well, for those of us that actually care about such issues. Anyway, the planet is currently named Gliese 581c but hopefully will get a sexier name soon.

Apparently the planet's star is pretty old. The article goes on to say:

Just because Gliese 581c is habitable does not mean that it is inhabited, but we do know its sun is an ancient star - in fact, it is one of the oldest stars in the galaxy, and extremely stable. If there is life, it has had many billions of years to evolve.

But then there's this:

The real importance is not so much the discovery of this planet itself, but the fact that it shows that Earth-like planets are probably extremely common in the Universe.

There are 200 billion stars in our galaxy alone and many astronomers believe most of these stars have planets.

The fact that almost as soon as we have built a telescope capable of detecting small, earth-like worlds, one turns up right on our cosmic doorstep, shows that statistically, there are probably billions of earths out there.

Can't wait for them to find more!

Quote of the Day
"We're recognizing that life on Earth does not appear to be anything special."
~ Bruce Jakosky