They had a term on “Star Trek” for planets capable of sustaining human life. They were named “class m” planets. That classification system is fiction, hut the reality it represents may be true. The planet Gliese 581d may soon earn the title of the first non-Earth planet to be capable of supporting humans.
Only 20 light-years away from Earth
Earth’s closes neighbor is red-dwarf star Gliese 581. It is 20 light years away from Earth though. That means it is too far away for visiting. It would take 300,000 years to make it there. That is assuming we are using our current technology still.
Atmosphere examined
The extraterrestrial world was examined by scientists with a computer model. It looked at the atmosphere. The planet is not so chilly that it stays frozen or so hot that it boils every little thing on it at the edge of the “Goldilocks zone” which is an excellent spot. It is the perfect climate. Water on it will stay liquid.
System has other planets that humans could live on
The Gliese 581 system continues to be a popular system to look to while searching for habitable planets. Of the planets checked out in the system, Gliese 581d was the only one that passed the tests. Two others were checked and failed. It was too cold on Gliese 581e. Another one was Gliese 581g that got attention last year. It was also known as “Zarmina’s World” to some. Scientists declared that it was roughly the same mass as Earth and was also within the Goldilocks zone. Some scientists don’t believe the planet even exists saying it was a “hiccup” in starlight. The find is still supported by those who discovered it.
An alien but supportable world
Gliese 581d, first spotted in 2007, has a mass at least seven times that of Earth and is about two times our planet’s size. The planet does not have defined days or night. They aren’t there at all in fact. Half of the planet is light and half is dark. This never changes though. The planet regulates heat well though since it has got red light and a heavy carbon atmosphere creating an impact like a greenhouse, according to French scientists at the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique at the Institute of Pierre Simon Laplace. It is lit by a perpetual red twilight, and its gravity is two times that of the Earth. Though it would make moving around difficult, human life could possibly exist under such conditions.
Information from
Huffington Post
huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/17/first-habitable-planet-2030_n_862785.html
Discovery
news.discovery.com/space/exoplanet-gliese-581d-human-habitation-110516.html
Yahoo news
news.yahoo.com/s/space/20110517/sc_space/istherockyalienplanetgliese581dreallyhabitable
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