Rocky Planet

June 14, 2005 1:44 PM

"This planet answers an ancient question," said team leader Geoffrey Marcy, professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. "Over 2,000 years ago, the Greek philosophers Aristotle and Epicurus argued about whether there were other Earth-like planets. Now, for the first time, we have evidence for a rocky planet around a normal star."
The star, Gliese 876, visible in the night sky, lies only 15 light-years away.
posted by vacapinta (19 comments total)

A rocky planet around a normal star? You make it sound so...unsordid.
posted by kozad at 1:55 PM on June 14, 2005

um.. Am I missing something, or does Mars not count as a rocky planet around a normal star?
posted by Parannoyed at 1:55 PM on June 14, 2005

only 15 light-years away

I'm not really doing anything for the next fifiteen light years. Road trip, anybody?
posted by zaelic at 1:59 PM on June 14, 2005

The new planet whips around the star in a mere two days, and is so close to the star's surface that its dayside temperature probably tops 400 to 750 degrees Fahrenheit (200 to 400 degrees Celsius)--oven-like temperatures far too hot for life as we know it.

Too bad. Cool find though, I can't wait to see what happens when they turn their attention back to the other M dwarf stars now that they've supposedly found a rocky planet. Screw Mars, other than the sheer impossibility of the trip, it would be really impressive to visit one of these planets.

On preview: Parannoyed, probably more impressive since it's the first such discovery around a sun other than our own.
posted by purephase at 1:59 PM on June 14, 2005

I'm not really doing anything for the next fifiteen light years. Road trip, anybody?

You get the gas, I'll drive.
posted by PlusDistance at 2:09 PM on June 14, 2005

y'know, this is the first time I've thought that I might live to see the day that a spaceship visits an extrasolar planet... though I'm not holding my breath
posted by Kattullus at 2:48 PM on June 14, 2005

Oh, those crafty ancient Greeks.
posted by troutfishing at 3:07 PM on June 14, 2005

The day a spaceship visits an extrasolar planet will be preceeded by the day we discover it has oil.
posted by darkness at 3:22 PM on June 14, 2005

that, or brown people willing to make sneakers for cheap.
posted by luriete at 3:33 PM on June 14, 2005

And if they have oil on that planet, we're going to name it "Halliburton" and give the natives the Gift of Democracy.
posted by orthogonality at 3:55 PM on June 14, 2005

.
posted by dreamsign at 4:00 PM on June 14, 2005

blah blah blah against jesus blah blah.

That is pretty damn cool though. I'm wondering when we'll see some more. We need some better telescopes.
posted by Smedleyman at 4:28 PM on June 14, 2005

First off, that planet is currently inhabited, thank you very much.

And second - get the HELL OFF MY LAWN you frigg'n chatting monkey's! Don't make me come down there!
posted by tkchrist at 4:59 PM on June 14, 2005

this is the first time I've thought that I might live to see the day that a spaceship visits an extrasolar planet

Well, now that it exists, we'd better get cracking on propulsion. Present technology (i.e. the fastest spacecraft right now, Voyager 1) would permit a visit in approximately .. {back of envelope, er, google calculator} 260,000 years.

Seriously, to achieve a realistic visit to another solar system would require a spacecraft capable of accelerating to, oh, half the speed of light. I mean, 10% would do for Wolf 359 or something. That would get you there in 30-odd years.

It's often been said that this won't realistically happen until a trip can take place within several decades, i.e. the average career lifetime of a scientist.

This does dispose of one debate about extrasolar planets, i.e. that they're mainly gas giants. What's gonna be amazing when we get the Terrestrial Planet Finder up in the sky is how damned many of these things we're (now more confidently) likely to find.
posted by dhartung at 11:42 PM on June 14, 2005

dhartung: I know. When I said "live" I meant something like 60-80 years from now. And by spaceship I mean unmanned. If reading old science articles/books has taught me anything it's not to have hope.

That being said, I still hope the TPF gets up and running. Thanks for the link, I hadn't heard about it.
posted by Kattullus at 4:24 AM on June 15, 2005

Parannoyed writes "Am I missing something, or does Mars not count as a rocky planet around a normal star?"

That should read other rocky star. Up until now we had no evidence one way or the other whether the Sol system is an extreme fluke or very common.
posted by Mitheral at 12:36 PM on June 15, 2005

zaelic : "I'm not really doing anything for the next fifiteen light years"

Silly nitpick: a light year's a measure of distance.
posted by Gyan at 5:31 PM on June 15, 2005

Thank you Gyan. Nothing bothers me more than when I read or watch cheesy sci-fi and they say "A thousand light-years from now..." Except for when an amazing advancement is called a 'quantum leap.'
posted by Citizen Premier at 7:53 PM on June 15, 2005

Nothing bothers me more than when I read or watch cheesy sci-fi and they say "A thousand light-years from now..." Except for when an amazing advancement is called a 'quantum leap.'

Captain Nemo: ... Fathoms are what you use to measure depth! Fathoms, not leagues!

Professor: And so, we are 20,000 fathoms under the sea?

Captain Nemo: Yes. But, I mean.. I mean no. No. We could be. But right now, we're just about, uh.. 200 fathoms beneath the sea.

Mr. Land: Oh, I get it. So 200 fathoms equals 20,000 leagues under the sea?

Captain Nemo: No! No! now, look, I was obviously wrong to have ever even mentioned 20,000 leagues nder the sea. I simply meant that we would traveling a total distance of 20,000 leagues - lengthwise, while we happen to be underwater.

Mr. Land: So you're saying we're 20,000 leagues underwater, under the sea?

First Mate: 20,000 leaguessss! That's pretty deep, Captain!

Captain Nemo: Oh, let's start over.
posted by bluffy at 10:16 AM on June 17, 2005