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November 15, 2004
Home away from home?
Scientists have found the first extra-solar (outside of our local solar system) planet that could possibly be habitable by humans at some point. At the very least, this is the first extra-solar planet upon which a probe from Earth could actually "touch down".
For the last few years, scientists have been scrambling to look at nearby stars in the hopes that planets would be discovered orbiting. So far about 125 such planets have been found and until now they've mainly been "gas giant" planets similar to Saturn and Jupiter.
Finding these gargantuan planets was the first step to looking for smaller rocky planets. Such smaller planets could one day be landed upon by probes sent from Earth.
Well the jackpot just hit, a rocky planet has been found orbiting around the star mu Arae, which is a mere 50 light years away from us. Mu Arae is a star similar to our sun in it's intensity and the as yet unnamed planet orbits in a region similar to Mars and Earth's in our solar system. The planet itself is about 14 times the size of Earth (about the size of Uranus), and does possess an atmosphere which makes up about 10 percent of the planets mass. Unlike Uranus (which is a smaller version of the gas giant Jupiter) this new rocky world may very well lie in the so called "goldilocks zone" which is a narrow temperature band where liquid water can exist on a planet with a suitable atmosphere. Also remarkable about this planet is it's obital velocity. The planet is rocketing around it's solar parent in just 9.5 days.
While it's unlikely that humans will ever set foot on this particular new world, the discovery is a milestone in the search for new planets that could support life and possibly one day be visited by humans or probes from Earth. As we refine our search techniques and can now positively identify smaller and smaller worlds, it's just a matter of time before we can find a new "home away from home".
I'll keep ya'll informed about any new developments with our new neighbor.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at November 15, 2004 4:24 PM
