Could There Be Another Planet Like Earth That We Could Mess Up Like We Have, Earth? (673 hits)
LiveScience Managing Editor
SPACE.com
The most Earth-like planet ever found Team of scientists discover a body that's not too hot and not too cold just 20 light years from Earth. Could sustain life Jeanna Bryner
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/yahoocanada/100930/canada/odds_of_life_on_newfound_earth _size_planet_100_per_cent___astronomer_says
An Earth-size planet has been spotted orbiting a nearby star at a distance that would makes it not too hot and not too cold - comfortable enough for life to exist, researchers announced today (Sept. 29).
If confirmed, the exoplanet, named Gliese 581g, would be the first Earth-like world found residing in a star's habitable zone - a region where a planet's temperature could sustain liquid water on its surface.
And the planet's discoverers are optimistic about the prospects for finding life there.
"Personally, given the ubiquity and propensity of life to flourish wherever it can, I would say, my own personal feeling is that the chances of life on this planet are 100 percent," said Steven Vogt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, during a press briefing today. "I have almost no doubt about it."
That was a good question Robert, here take a look at this.
The image shows an intensely bright "ring of fire", as Prof Falcke describes it, surrounding a perfectly circular dark hole. The bright halo is caused by superheated gas falling into the hole. The light is brighter than all the billions of other stars in the galaxy combined - which is why it can be seen at such distance from Earth.
