European Southern Observatory Issues Definitive Science Release: Astronomers Find First Earth-like Planet in Habitable Zone

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) released a science release on April 25, 2007 announcing their discovery:

http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2007/pr-22-07.html

It opens:

Astronomers Find First Earth-like Planet in Habitable Zone
The Dwarf Carried Other Worlds Too!
Astronomers have discovered the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System to date, an exoplanet with a radius only 50% larger than the Earth and capable of having liquid water. Using the ESO 3.6-m telescope, a team of Swiss, French and Portuguese scientists discovered a super-Earth about 5 times the mass of the Earth that orbits a red dwarf, already known to harbour a Neptune-mass planet. The astronomers have also strong evidence for the presence of a third planet with a mass about 8 Earth masses.

Not surprisingly, this science release provides definitive details on planet 581c -- its size (a radius 50% longer than earth's), orbit (13 days), and distance to its sun (14 times closer than Earth is to its).  The release also explains that the host star, Gliese 581, is "among the closest 100 stars to us... only 20.5 light years away in the constellation Libra."  Gliese 581, a red dwarf star, has a mass only one third the mass of our sun and is "intrinsically at least 50 times fainter." 

The release closes with this optimistic note by HARPS principal investigator Michel Mayor:

"And we are confident that, given the results obtained so far, finding a planet with the mass of the Earth around a red dwarf is within reach."

We certainly hope so.

Comments

[Angie]

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