Wednesday, April 25

A not completely uninhabitable planet

The media seem to be getting rather excited over this one. It is interesting though - a planet only a bit bigger than Earth orbiting in what is termed the Habitable Zone - i.e. a distance from its star that puts it in a position where liquid water is possible. Which is about all we know about it at the moment - it's rocky, it's about 1.5 times the size of Earth, and water *might* be present on its surface. It *might* have an atmosphere. We can't tell.

It's also rather close to its star - since it orbits a rather feeble red dwarf, (Gliese 581), the habitable zone it orbits in is 14 times closer to the star than Earth is to the Sun.

The Wikipedians have already put up details.

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