Astronomers Discover the Most Earth-like Exoplanet

A group of chaps from Portugal, France and Switzerland have discovered what they call the most "Earth-like" planet outside our solar system. Judged at only 50 percent wider than Earth, the exoplanet (scientific jargon for a planet orbiting another sun besides our own) orbits the red-dwarf star Gliese 581.

The planet would be about twice the surface area of Earth and at least five times as heavy. Due to the proximity to its sun (about 14 times closer than we are to our sun), the planet would have approximately twice the gravity of Earth and a 13-Earth-day-year.

Nevertheless, as the red dwarf is smaller and cooler than our sun, the exoplanet resides in the possible "habitable zone". According to Sté­phane Udry of Switz­er­land’s Ge­ne­va Ob­serv­a­to­ry, the planet's average temperature is estimated at between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius and would thus be home to liquid water. In the article, Udry further claims that models predict the surface to be either rocky or covered with oceans.

Due to the long burn of the red dwarf and its location as one of the 100 closest stars to Earth (a mere 20.5 light years in the constellation Libra), the planet obviously becomes a future target for exploration.

The team made the discovery (after having found another, much heavier planet around the dwarf star 2 years ago) with the Eu­ro­pe­an South­ern Ob­serv­a­to­ry’s 3.6-meter tel­e­scope at La Silla, Chil­e (High Ac­cu­ra­cy Ra­di­al Ve­loc­i­ty for Plan­e­tary Search­er).