Newfound Super-Earth Might Support Life

[PPI Karl]

Space NBC.com http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46237284/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.Tyq6qZjze10
Newfound Super-Earth Might Support Life, Scientists Say
By Denise Chow 2012 Feb. 02

A potentially habitable alien planet--one that scientists say is the best candidate yet to harbor water, and possibly even life, on its surface--has been found around a nearby star. The planet is located in the habitable zone of its host star, which is a narrow circumstellar region where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on the planet's surface.  "It's the holy grail of exoplanet research to find a planet around a star orbiting at the right distance so it's not too close where it would lose all its water and boil away, and not too far where it would all freeze," Steven Vogt, an astronomer at the University of California at Santa Cruz, told Space.com. "It's right smack in the habitable zone--there's no question or discussion about it. It's not on the edge, it's right in there."  Vogt is one of the authors of the new study, which was led by Guillem Anglada-Escude and Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution for Science, a private, nonprofit research organization based in Washington.  "This planet is the new best candidate to support liquid water and, perhaps, life as we know it," Anglada-Escude said in a statement.

An alien super-Earth
The researchers estimate that the planet, called GJ 667Cc, is at least 4.5 times as massive as Earth, which makes it a so-called super-Earth. It takes roughly 28 days to make one orbital lap around its parent star, which is located a mere 22 light-years away from Earth, in the constellation Scorpius (the Scorpion).

What's so super about super-Earths?
"This is basically our next-door neighbor," Vogt said. "It's very nearby. There are only about 100 stars closer to us than this one." Interestingly enough, the host star, GJ 667C, is a member of a triple-star system. GJ 667C is an M-class dwarf star that is about a third of the mass of the sun, and while it is faint, it can be seen by ground-based telescopes, Vogt said. "The planet is around one star in a triple-star system," Vogt explained. "The other stars are pretty far away, but they would look pretty nice in the sky." The discovery of a planet around GJ 667C came as a surprise to the astronomers, because the entire star system has a different chemical makeup than our sun. The system has much lower abundances of heavy elements (elements heavier than hydrogen and helium), such as iron, carbon and silicon. "It's pretty deficient in metals," Vogt said. "These are the materials out of which planets form--the grains of stuff that coalesce to eventually make up planets--so we shouldn't have really expected this star to be a likely case for harboring planets." The fortuitous discovery could mean that potentially habitable alien worlds could exist in a greater variety of environments than was previously thought possible, the researchers said. "Statistics tell us we shouldn't have found something this quickly this soon unless there's a lot of them out there," Vogt said. "This tells us there must be an awful lot of these planets out there. It was almost too easy to find, and it happened too quickly." The detailed findings of the study will be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

An intriguing star system
Another super-Earth that orbits much closer to GJ 667C was previously detected in 2010, but the finding was never published, Vogt added. This planet, called GJ 667Cb, takes 7.2 days to circle the star, but its location makes it far too hot to sustain liquid water on its surface. "It's basically glowing cinders, or a well-lit charcoal," Vogt said. "We know about a lot of these, but they're thousands of degrees and not places where you could live." The newly detected GJ 667Cc planet is a much more intriguing candidate, he said. "When a planet gets bigger than about 10 times the size of the Earth, there's a runaway process that happens, where it begins to eat up all the gas and ice in the disk that it's forming out of and swells quickly into something like Uranus, Jupiter or Saturn," Vogt explained. "When you have a surface and the right temperature, if there's water around, there's a good chance that it could be in liquid form. This planet is right in that sweet spot in the habitable zone, so we've got the right temperature and the right mass range." Preliminary observations also suggest that more planets could exist in this system, including a gas giant planet and another super-Earth that takes about 75 days to circle the star. More research will be needed to confirm these planetary candidates, as well as to glean additional details about the potentially habitable super-Earth, the scientists said.

Finding nearby alien planets
To make their discovery, the researchers used public data from the European Southern Observatory combined with observations from the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii and the new Carnegie Planet Finder Spectrograph at the Magellan II Telescope in Chile. Follow-up analyses were also made using a planet-hunting technique that measures the small dips, or wobbles, in a star's motion caused by the gravitational tug of a planet. "With the advent of a new generation of instruments, researchers will be able to survey many M dwarf stars for similar planets and eventually look for spectroscopic signatures of life in one of these worlds," Anglada-Escude said in a statement. Anglada-Escude was with the Carnegie Institution for Science when he conducted the research, but has since moved on to the University of Gottingen in Germany. With the GJ 667C system being relatively nearby, it also opens exciting possibilities for probing potentially habitable alien worlds in the future, Vogt said, which can't easily be done with the planets that are being found by NASA's prolific Kepler spacecraft. "The planets coming out of Kepler are typically thousands of light-years away and we could never send a space probe out there," Vogt said. "We've been explicitly focusing on very nearby stars, because with today's technology, we could send a robotic probe out there, and within a few hundred years, it could be sending back picture postcards."

[PPI Brian]

That's incredible news. Another discovery in the Gliese star system. Imagine what a 28-day year would be like. We don't think there's enough time in our 365-day year. The night sky on this world must be incredible, because GJ 667C is one of three stars that bear the designation GJ 667 - a tripple star system. GJ 667C orbits farther away than the other two stars.  



Here's a link about the tripple star system:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_667

[PPI Jason]

This is exciting news.

It's interesting because I've started getting more involved in astronomy again. I went to the "Sky At Night" presentation last night at the Ruben H. Fleet Space Museum. I tried to take my boys but they backed out at the last minute. I'm hoping to take them next month.

The presentation had been on hiatus for several months but just re-opened last night. I had never been before, but they said they had made some major improvements to the presentation system. I guess the old system would display starts on the IMax dome that just looked like green lights. The new system literally looks like the night sky (showing the stars in accurate colors).

The presenter was Dr. Grant Miller who teaches astronomy at Southwestern College. He did an amazing job. Not only was he informative, interesting, and funny, but he managed to share a presentation that was intellectually stimulating for adults but still very accessible and amusing for the kids. At one point he was describing the difference between Canis Majoris and Canis Minors noting that the constellation Canis Minors was really just two stars (the constellation is an impressive line between two stars). He commented that he felt that he wasn't sure what the ancient greeks were thinking (or possibly drinking) when they saw a "dog" when looking at two stars but that he felt that maybe they had really just prophecied the future existence of the "hot dog." The kids in the audience loved it.

Then I went out to the Prado while members of the SDAA (San Diego Astronomy Association) let the public look through their wonderful collection of telescopes. It was a great experience and I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to have a fun, informative, and very inexpensive evening.

The "Sky at Night" show is shown the first Wednesday of each month. They have shows at 7:00pm and 8:15 pm. The SDAA also sets their telescopes up just west of the museum to coincide with these shows, weather permitting.

It might be a fun PPI outing if we got together sometime and went to one of these shows as a group (since many of us share an appreciation for the night sky). 

[PPI Tim]

Oh Great! Now we have to invent a Warp engine. It is so rude to live next door to someone and never say hello them. ::|

[PPI Jason]

Question for you, Brian.

You say Gliese is a triple star system. Does that mean that all these planets are gravitationally bound to each other or are they just close to each other (in other words, do they orbit each other).

And does this also mean they are all in the center of this solar system (meaning that this "super-earth" orbits all three stars)? Or does it orbit two of the stars with the third star off in the distance, or does this super-earth have to weave it's way in between stars somehow?

Okay, I guess that was more than just one question.  

[PPI Brian]

Question for you, Brian.

You say Gliese is a triple star system. Does that mean that all these planets are gravitationally bound to each other or are they just close to each other (in other words, do they orbit each other).

And does this also mean they are all in the center of this solar system (meaning that this "super-earth" orbits all three stars)? Or does it orbit two of the stars with the third star off in the distance, or does this super-earth have to weave it's way in between stars somehow?

Okay, I guess that was more than just one question.  

Hi Jason,

Sounds like you had a blast the other night at RHF Space Center. I think it would be a great PPI outing.

From what little I know about the Gliese 667 trinary system, all three stars are gravitationally bound together. GJ 667 A & B are orange dwarf stars 3/4 to 1/2 as big as our sun, and C is a red dwarf about 1/3 the size of our sun.  The A & B components orbit eachother in such a way that they probably don't have any planets. Approximately every 42 years the stars orbits range from the distance between our sun and Jupiter (5 AU) to the distance between our sun and Uranus (20 AU). (1 AU or Astronomical Unit is equivalent to the distance between the sun and the Earth, or about 93 million miles) If the A & B stars had planetary systems the gravitational pull between the two stars probably would have ejected them a long time ago. GJ 667 C lies farther away from the A & B stars, ranging from about 50 AU to about 215 AU, well outside the major gravitational pull (and the heliopause) of the A & B stars. Because red dwarf stars are smaller and cooler, they burn a lot longer than our stars like our sun. Astronomers think red dwarf stars can burn continuously for hundreds of billions of years. They also believe that planets in the habitable zone of stars such as this might have the best chances of developing advanced forms of life. Once again, the C star is only about 1/3 the size of our sun. This is why the new planet designated GJ 667C c has an orbital period of 28 days -- in order for it to be in the habitable zone it has to be a lot closer to its parent star.  

Sorry for going into "geek" mode here.   To summarize, the three stars orbit a common center of gravity. The A & B stars are closer together, and they wander into each other's "personal space" where you would expect their planetary systems to be. Their close orbits probably swept all their planets into interstellar space a long time ago. The C star, on the other hand, is on the outside of the trinary system and has it's own planetary system with at least two known planets. Both planets are classified as "super earth" rocky planets, but only one of them is in the habitable zone where liquid water might exist. I imagine that further study of the star system will reveal even more planets orbiting GJ 667C.

Oh Great! Now we have to invent a Warp engine. It is so rude to live next door to someone and never say hello them. ::|

LOL! Because GJ 667C system is older than our sun, there are probably people living there thinking the same thing. Who knows -- they might have already stopped by on their way to someplace much more interesting.  

http://www.youtube.com/v/qJP8jT7xFR0

[PPI Debra]

Oh Great! Now we have to invent a Warp engine. It is so rude to live next door to someone and never say hello them. ::|

I was wondering how we could get there. 

[PPI Jason]

So, if I understand you correctly, it seems like 28 days (or so) this planet actually goes inbetween Gliese C and the two other nearby stars. So there would be times when it could be pretty close to daytime on both sides of the planet at the same time (though obviously the side facing A and B would be a darker type of day).

If I'm right in this, I wonder what kind of effect having such a weird daily and annual cycle would have on the society developing there. If you think about it, the predictibility of the seasons, the consistency in the length of our days and years, all these are things we enjoy that have had a huge impact on aspects of our society we don't fully understand. But take the consistency away and I wonder if civilization would advance as rapidly (or more rapidly) as it did here.

It just so fascinating to think of the many many variables that make us who we are and to imagine what kind of world would exist if we changed even just a few of those variables.

Just think of it, they wouldn't have any songs that sing about the consistency of "the sun will come out, tomorrow." It would have to be something like, "The sun will come out, in a few hours, unless it's the month of Zinjoodablooplap in which case it will be replaced for 14 hours by two other suns before coming out again."

I just don't know how you could make a song out of that. But I guess in Gliesian it would be possible.

[PPI Debra]

Jason, you are soooo

funny!

[PPI Brian]

LOL! I almost shot coffee out my nose when I read that.  

You raise an interesting point: GJ 677C c orbits its red sun once every 28 days. Chances are a rocky planet that close to its parent star would be tidally locked, much like our own moon is tidally locked by the gravity of the Earth. If that's the case, the sun would never set on the daylight side and never rise on the night side. The seasons would be in constant flux, changing from winter to spring to summer to fall in a matter of days, then repeat  just as quickly. The terminator between night and day would generate high winds due to the difference in temperature between the dark side and the light side. There would some obvious advantages and disadvantages to living on such a planet. Because the planet is bigger than Earth you would weigh a lot more on GJ 677C c, so you'd have to be a lot stronger just to get up and walk around. But if you're into astronomy, you never have to worry about the sun coming up and ending your session. As you mentioned, the stars GJ 677A & GJ 677B would be very bright in the night sky, and they would probably be visible in the day sky too. Imagine all the amazing ways that plants and animals would evolve on the light side and the dark side.  

Have you ever read the story "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov? It's a story about people who lived on a planet that had six suns (it orbited one star in a cluster of five other close stars) so it was never dark. Ever. The main characters of the story are a group of scientists from different fields of study - psychology, astronomy and archeaology. The psychologist is studying the reaction of people to total darkness. The scariest ride on the planet was a "tunnel of love" with no lights, just a dark tunnel. People were so afraid of the dark they lost their minds on that ride. The archeaologist discovers evidence of civilizations rising then being destroyed and rebuilt every 2000 years or so. The astronomer discovers that the suns are about to align and be totally eclipsed by the moon - an event that only happens every 2049 years. You can probably guess how the rest of the story plays out. It's an amazing story that was written in 1941 if memory serves me correctly.  

Here's a video about another planet similar to GJ 677C c -- Gleise 581 g in the constellation Libra. Astronomers now believe Gleise 581 g is in a tidally locked orbit.

http://www.youtube.com/v/wJXSSYyIVqw

Traveling to the Gliese System
http://www.youtube.com/v/H5zSWQwpjPg

The Importance of Gliese 581g
http://www.youtube.com/v/M6_HooIJLNc

[PPI Brian]

this video demonstrates the similarities between the macro universe and the micro universe. It features Gliese 677Cc as a launching point. I thought it was worthy of sharing with our PPI forum family.

http://www.youtube.com/v/_IVqMXPFYwI

[adminsandiegohaunted]

I admire the search for water based (Earth like) planets. Water (liquid form) being the key, for sustaining Fauna and Flora, on a planetary scale. At the end of the day this is a best scientific guess, and not a sure thing. So as pointed out, "how do we get there"? NASA boasts the Orion MPCV as a deep space exploration vehicle capable of sustained 6 month voyages. The MPVC engine is still based on known propulsion systems. Therefore it is safe to assume this is not a platform that will take us to places like Gliese. It is clear that meaningful space exploration will only be obtained via Faster than Light (FTL) space exploration.  The key to FTL is the ability to  produce and manipulate gravity as required. Is this possible yet? no. Through centrifugal force we could produce the simulated effects of gravity in a space ship, but as of now we are unable  produce or manipulate gravity.  

Now I want to tie this into our field of study, specifically shadow persons.  [1] Think about how fast a shadow can move.  If you project the shadow of your finger using a nearby lamp onto a distant wall and then wag your finger, the shadow will move much faster than your finger.  If your finger moves parallel to the wall, the shadow's speed will be multiplied by a factor D/d where d is the distance from the lamp to your finger, and D is the distance from the lamp to the wall.  The speed can even be much faster than this if the wall is at an angle to your finger's motion.  If the wall is very far away, the movement of the shadow will be delayed because of the time it takes light to get there, but the shadow's speed is still increased by the same ratio.  The speed of a shadow is therefore not restricted to be less than the speed of light.
It is not possible to send information faster than light on a shadow. Those previous statements really get to the root of how complicated it is to even define FTL. True FTL must involve a real object (information) moving faster than light.

Mathematically it is clear shadows can move faster than light, because they contain "no information".  Shadows are produced when information carried by photons of light are obstructed by a mass containing information. This goes to something I have been flirting with for a while. Shadow persons and ghosts seem to produce measurable effects by which we can monitor such as evp, avp, video, ET... All of which require one consistent fact, having energy which means must have mass too. In a room setting, if ghost entered the room, more mass would exist (same as a living person), and could theoretically be measured. One could be measuring perhaps oxygen or carbon dioxide levels in a room.  As a new mass enters the room, less "Air" would be present as it is displaced. This could be practical in a controlled environmental.

[1]http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SpeedOfLight/FTL.html#3

[PPI Tracy]

"This is Planet Earth, you're looking at Planet Earth.....ba ba bap ba ba ba bap bap...."  (Duran Duran did a much better rendition)

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2106061,00.html

[PPI Tracy]

Looks like my post was from the Department of Redundancy Department.

oops