New Super Earth Like Planet Found Outside Our So­lar Sys­tem

Earth-like planet has been discovered



The headlines are reading "For the first time in history, an Earth-like planet has been discovered orbiting a distant star." It is relatively nearby at 120 trillion miles away. It closely orbits a "red dwarf," and is much smaller, cooler and dimmer than our sun. This one is 5 times the mass of earth hence the name "Super Earth." They say it is orbiting the red dwarf star called Gliese 581.

This is one amazing discovery and a major historical moment in time. Today As­tro­no­mers have re­ported dis­co­v­er­ing the most Earth-like plan­et out­side our So­lar Sys­tem to date. A world that may have liq­uid oceans and life. They say the planet is just the right size, and that it might have water in liquid form.

Oth­er cu­ri­ous fea­tures of the new­found plan­et are that ; and its year is just 13 Earth days long, as it comp­letes one or­bit about its sun in that time.

Scientists have said that due to its great­er width this planet is es­ti­mat­ed to weigh as much as five Earths, and has more than twice Earth’s sur­face ar­ea. They have also said that the grav­i­ty at its sur­face would be around twice as strong as it is on Earth. It could very well host life and several kinds.

The planet was discovered by the European Southern Observatory's telescope in La Silla, Chile, which has a special instrument that splits light to find wobbles in different wave lengths. Those wobbles can reveal the existence of other worlds.

What they revealed is a planet circling the red dwarf star, Gliese 581. Red dwarfs are low-energy, tiny stars that give off dim red light and last longer than stars like our sun. Until a few years ago, astronomers didn't consider these stars as possible hosts of planets that might sustain life.

They have said that the av­er­age tem­pe­r­a­tures on this “supe­r-Earth” must lie be­tween 0 and 40 de­grees Cel­si­us (32 to 104 de­grees Fahren­heit), and models pre­dict that the plan­et should be ei­ther rock­y—like our Earth—or cov­ered with oceans.

I for one will follow this closely. Some have already said that is could be a pre-release to prepare us here on earth for new amazing things that they (our government) already know about. STAY TUNED!