Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Extrasolar Planet Could Harbor Life

Posted by Zonk on from the hello-up-there dept.

BlueMorpho writes with a link to a Space.com article about a recently discovered extrasolar planet that may be able to harbor 'life as we know it.' Orbiting around the star Gliese 581 is a small rocky ball that might have the same liquid ocean and drifting continent configuration we're familiar with. The find may be unique in all of space exploration as this planet appears to be within a habitable band of temperatures for life, and is categorically not a gas giant. "The bottom line is exciting ...The conditions for life could be there, but is life itself? As yet, there's no way to know unless the planet has spawned beings that are at least as clever as we are. As part of the SETI Institute's Project Phoenix, we twice aimed large antennas in the direction of Gliese 581, hoping to pick up a signal that would bespeak technology ... Neither search turned up a signal."

4 of 308 comments (clear)

  1. I'm sure this was posted before? by rdforsyth · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Has this not been posted before?! It sounds so familiar.

    --
    Ryan
  2. planet "could" harbor life.. by GillBates0 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Well so could my underwear, but that doesn't make it true, does it.

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
  3. BWAHAHAHAHAHA by circletimessquare · · Score: 1, Redundant

    mod parent up ;-)

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  4. Re:Oh my god, it's full of dupes. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I for one welcome our new Gliese 581 Overlords.

    We'll make great pets!