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Super-Earth Discovered In Star's Habitable Zone
astroengine writes "The family of planets circling a relatively close dwarf star has grown to six, including a potential rocky world at least seven times more massive than Earth that is properly located for liquid water to exist on its surface, a condition believed to be necessary for life. Scientists added three new planets to three discovered in 2008 orbiting an orange star called HD 40307, which is roughly three-quarters as massive as the sun and located about 42 light-years away in the constellation Pictor. Of particular interest is the outermost planet, which is believed to fly around its parent star over 320 days, a distance that places it within HD 40307's so-called "habitable zone.""
seven times more massive than Earth...
so much for their early space program
Star's, not stars', unless the planet is orbiting more than one star at a time. Didn't we just talk about apostrophe abuse in another Slashdot headline a couple days ago?
Better known as 318230.
But what about moons?
We have found plenty of Jupiter size planets in the habitable zone.
Imagine a planet larger than Jupiter with 60 moons orbiting in the habitable zone. Many with liquid water.
I just marvel at the amount and diversity of moons in our own solar system. It seems like there would be far more moons in the habitable zone than planets universe wide.
Hopefully in the future we'll build some giant telescope and get a better answer.
Earth masses is not the same as surface gravity. Assuming a similar density, this planet would have roughly twice the gravity as Earth.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
I wonder if this will prevent walking animals.
I imagine a snake or a fish should not have nearly as much trouble as a dog or human.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
I think by now we all know water is important for life...can we stop pointing it out every time we talk about anything outside of earth?
no escape velocity, still traps all the lighter gasses and ruins the surface environment
Just hit the little button on the back of the Sontarans' helmets and they go down like a sack of potatoes.
I said - don't look Ethel!..., but it was too late..., she'd already looked.
I see no real point in waking you up, not like you're going to contribute anything when we do.
That is also assuming it has a magnetic field like earth and isn't bombarded by the solar (or whatever you would call the charged particles coming off an alien star) wind. There is much more that could be at play then just gravity and escape velocities.
It might have oil.
What's with the poor "Habitable Zone" being "So-Called"? That makes it sound like it's not the correct name for it, but being the correct scientific term, how can it be incorrect? Okay, maybe it's the "Circumstellar Habitable Zone", but come on!!! It IS the theoretically "habitable zone" of a parent star, you could call it the so-called "Goldilocks Zone", because the phase "Goldilocks Zone" is just colloquial. /me ends rant.
The article suggests that it actually gets less radiation than Earth does, so that sort of bombardment probably isn't an issue. That said, the lack of radiation could very well make advanced life unlikely, given the effects it'd have on mutation rate.
Is this a dupe of yesterday's "we've now identified Krypton" story?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
He's just waiting for us to find something 80% N2 and 20% O2 with 70% of it's surface covered in water before he unveils his warp teleporter.
Tidal forces would cause an Earth-sized moon to cool more slowly, improving stratification of the molten iron core. This improves the strength of the moon's magnetosphere. Radiation is probably fine.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
The planet would be a prime target for space telescopes being designed that are sensitive enough to directly image relatively nearby Earth-sized worlds.
Haha. We can't even directly image all of the planets in our own solar system with space telescopes. How are we going to manage a relatively small planet in a solar system 42 light years away?
Just sayin'...
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Wondering if this was Kobol'sstar?
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Just hit the little button on the back of the Sontarans' helmets and they go down like a sack of potatoes.
"I don't get it, sir. I mean, what good is a knife in a nuke fight?"
"Your enemy cannot press a button, if you disable his hand!"
MEDIC!!
That said, the lack of radiation could very well make advanced life unlikely, given the effects it'd have on mutation rate.
The effects of radiation on genetic mutation are largely unknown. We have (in fairly recent years) discovered that genetic mutation can and does occur from environmental factors other than radiation. It's a huge unknown, so to be blunt it's equally likely that the reduced radiation could actually lead to more stable mutations and an overall increased evolution rate.
That said, the lack of radiation could very well make advanced life unlikely, given the effects it'd have on mutation rate.
The effects of radiation on genetic mutation are largely unknown. We have (in fairly recent years) discovered that genetic mutation can and does occur from environmental factors other than radiation. It's a huge unknown, so to be blunt it's equally likely that the reduced radiation could actually lead to more stable mutations and an overall increased evolution rate.
I'd like to be even more specific: you don't need radiation for genetic mutation to occur. Standard DNA polymerases make mistakes all the time without any outside forces beyond thermodynamics, and simple viruses like Ebola tend to have very poorly performing RNA polymerases that make a lot of mistakes because it's advantageous to their survival to do so.
Conversely, bacteria that live in fuel rod settling pools take the opposite approach - they "staple" their DNA together with a high GC content to improve radiation resistance. There's such a diverse range of factors at play that it's ridiculous to suggest "radiation" would give us any information about whether a place could have advanced life.
Is this good enough?
Maybe the answer is 42 :)
BUT.
42 light years at 10% of the speed of light (which is within the possibilities) and it would only take about 10 generations to reach this place.
It could actually be a place suitable for evacuation!
..so maybe it's a mini-Mesklin?
all of this assuming carbon based life forms
"Stellar" wind, would be the radiation emitted by any generic star.
Learn something new.
So, now we know where Valeria is.
mark
With a declination of -60 degrees this is yet another intriguing nearby star system that is best viewed/targeted from the southern hemisphere. The Alpha Centauri system is only about 1 degree further south. It really seems that the southern sky is way more interesting than the north. Of course the galactic center and the Wow signal location are also in the southern hemisphere. It's good that the SKA is being built there. It's too bad that China's giant Arecibo-killer dish is not.
This star would pass directly above your radio telescope (at your zenith) on Coronation Island in the Southern Ocean. Tierra del Fuego or at least southern Patagonia would be second best in terms of targeting and listening. I think it's about time we sent these guys a message. It's just too bad none of us currently reading this will be alive to hear any reply after more than 80 years of transit time. While we have our dish pointed that way we can also ping Alpha Centauri A and B. It's actually quite rude that we haven't already done so. The galactic community must regard us as antisocial, self-centered hermits.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.