An incredible discovery has been made by NASA recently: A new planet that’s the right size and location for life and only 20 light-years away, in a solar system very similar to our own but much smaller. The newly-discovered planet is called Gliese 581g and is the first world discovered beyond Earth that’s the right size and location for life.
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How can something REALLY LARGE be hidden from sight? If it’s an object in space, astronomers can know it’s there from the reactions of other stars and planets, even if they can’t see it. They have evidence that either GIANT brown dwarf ("cold") star or a HUGE gas giant planet is at the outermost reaches of our solar system, far beyond Pluto. Astronomers think it’s 4 times as big as Jupiter and have even named it: Tyche. They even think it may be responsible for the mass extinctions that occur at regular intervals on Earth.
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The Master of the Key predicted we would find new universes?and we have. Astronomers have also discovered a viable new Earth-like planet that’s fairly close to us.
US astronomers say they have found a new planet orbiting around a star that is only 41 light years from Earth. That means that if we could learn how to travel at half the speed of light, it would take us around 80 years to get there, which is “close” in astronomical terms. It’s orbiting a star called 55 Cancri, which has 4 other planets traveling around it. This is the largest number of planets ever found orbiting a single star in a solar system that is not our own. The new planet is 45 times bigger than Earth, meaning it’s unlikely to harbor life, BUT…
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Researchers are searching the solar system for a planet?like ours?that could sustain life. One of the first things they look for is water.
In the July 12 issue of the Independent, Steve Connor writes about the discovery of a planet where one side is “bathed in perpetual daylight while the other is kept in infinite night. Here, an entire year passes in just over 48 hours and surface temperatures are hot enough to melt lead.” It’s obviously not habitable, so why are astronomers interested in it? According to Connor, it’s “also the place where scientists have for the first time found evidence of water on a planet beyond our own solar system?a discovery that marks a milestone in the search for the vital signs of extraterrestrial life.”
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