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[ThirdSection]

New 'Goldilocks' Exoplanet Could be the Most Earth-Like We've Yet Seen

Just a question of cloud cover
By Clay Dillow
08.31.2011
5:08 pm
Link to Original: Popular Science

Needs More Clouds A rendering of what an alien habitable planet might look like if we could ever get close enough to see it. Illustration courtesy L. Calçada, ESO

Scientists have tracked down another goldilocks planet 31 light-years from Earth, and according to astronomers it has some strong points in its favor when it comes to the possibility of harboring the ingredients for life. HD85512b orbits an orange dwarf in the constellation Vela, and it’s just the right distance from the sun--and just the right mass--to rank among the most Earth-like planets ever discovered.

And by “among,” we mean really one of just two (or three, depending on how you feel about Gliese 581g). Of the hundreds of exoplanets astronomers have recently discovered orbiting distant stars, only one--Gliese 581d--has been of the proper mass and distance from its star to be considered a strong candidate for habitability. Nearby Gliese 581g was once thought to be even more Earth-like than 581d, until some scientists asserted that 581g doesn’t even exist--a point that is still under debate.

Space
HD85512b was discovered by the ESO’s High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher, or HARPS, in Chile (it’s the same instrument that found Gliese 581d. The data show that HD85512b is roughly three-and-a-half times the mass of Earth and rings its planet on the inner fringe of the so-called “goldilocks zone” that is not to distant and not too close to harbor liquid water. It’s size is also indicative of an Earth-like atmosphere of oxygen and nitrogen rather than the hydrogen and helium that dominate the atmospheres of larger worlds.

That alone makes it a potential candidate for life, but HD85512b has a couple of other characteristics working for it. For one, its orbit is almost perfectly circular and stable, so any climate on the planet wouldn’t swing wildly as it orbits. The planetary system is older than our own--a full one billion years older--so clearly it’s had enough time for life to potentially have developed there. in the same vein, its star is also more mature than our sun so it is less prone to violent solar activity that could destabilize the planet’s atmosphere.

Of course, there’s no way to tell if it actually has an atmosphere with modern instruments, and atmosphere is a critical ingredient here. Since HD85512b is orbiting on the inner portion of the goldilocks zone, it is more akin to Venus than to Earth in the amount of solar energy it’s taking on. But scientists speculate that cloud cover of fifty percent or more could offset that proximity enough to allow life to thrive--albeit a kind of life more suited to a balmy, hot environment (relative to Earth’s).

On average, Earth boasts 60 percent cloud cover so the idea of HD85512b having 50 percent isn’t so far-fetched. In fact, it’s probably more likely than the idea of humans building a light-speed spacecraft and then making the 31-year journey to go in for a closer look at the weather. But it’s fun to think about.

[KB723]

I think folks would Shit down both legs to find out that it
Is inhabited with folks even more Fucked up than our
Planet!!!

[ThirdSection]

I think folks would Shit down both legs to find out that it
Is inhabited with folks even more Fucked up than our
Planet!!!

The planet's older than our Earth, so if anyone's still left over there, they probably still remember how everybody fucked up several generations ago and they're trying real hard not to do it again.

[KB723]

The planet's older than our Earth, so if anyone's still left over there, they probably still remember how everybody fucked up several generations ago and they're trying real hard not to do it again.

Check out Book of Urantia, there are many other planets with living folks....

[ThirdSection]

Check out Book of Urantia, there are many other planets with living folks....

Is there a link?

[KB723]

Here you go ThirdSection...
www.letusreason.org/Cults17.htm

[KB723]

Is there a link?

Posted you a link above...

[ThirdSection]

Someone had themselves quite the imagination! 

[KB723]

Someone had themselves quite the imagination!  Smiley

I heard that these words came to this gentleman while he was in a Coma, so I can Relate... What do you think???

[ThirdSection]

I heard that these words came to this gentleman while he was in a Coma, so I can Relate... What do you think???

I tend to be very skeptical of such things.  Anyway, you were in a coma???

[KB723]

I tend to be very skeptical of such things.  Anyway, you were in a coma???

For ten days... I crashed my mtn bike... Pretty Cool, No?

[ThirdSection]

Pretty Cool, No?

Shit. The cool part is that you woke up!!! 

[KB723]

Shit. The cool part is that you woke up!!!

Yup, just long enough for my insurance company to Drag their feet... I was basically kicked out of the Hospital, and never did receive the Therapy my doctor recommended or the year away from work he demanded, but I am still up and moving around, I am very fortunate...

[ThirdSection]

Yup, just long enough for my insurance company to Drag their feet... I was basically kicked out of the Hospital, and never did receive the Therapy my doctor recommended or the year away from work he demanded, but I am still up and moving around, I am very fortunate...

Well, as they say, if it didn't kill you, it only made you stronger. 

(I'd suggest changing insurance companies, but I fear they're all like that...)

[KB723]

(I'd suggest changing insurance companies, but I fear they're all like that...)

And we are always the Last to know...

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