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Old 07-18-2010, 09:27 AM   #23009 (permalink)
BadNick
Riding the Ocean Spray
 
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Location: S.E. PA in U Sofa
I just checked out your link, Jet. Interesting. I also noticed Gliese 581c mentioned in my Sky & Telescope pages. My favorite part was the Goldilocks Zone.

Gliese 581c did not strike me as a possible new homeworld unless one were a live steamed shrimp or similar extra-terrestrial creature. And if you are, please come visit me and bring some cocktail sauce with you...though if I got to know you better I might not want to eat you right away.

Selsis et al seem to state it closer to my own thoughts: even "a planet in the habitable zone is not necessarily habitable" itself, and this planet "is outside what can be considered the conservative habitable zone" of the parent star, and further that if there was any water there then it was lost when the red dwarf was a strong X-ray and EUV emitter, it could have surface temperatures ranging from 700 K to 1000 K (430 to 730 °C).



The planet's mass (i.e. stronger gravity), and proximity to it's star, strongly suggest that most of the water is in water-vapor form due to a runaway greenhouse effect. Also, the speed or orbit, 13 days vs our ~365 days, suggests that life there might feel like an amusement park ride. Also, since it is in tidal lock and only one side ever faces its sun, the other side is always dark, which to me means that there will almost certainly be neverending war between the darkees and the lightees. Not to mention violent geological activity, causing many highly active volcanoes and rapid plate tectonics action.

We need to keep looking. And while we're looking, find a way to travel that far, an estimated 20.3 light-years away, within a few life-times or less, and even with that velocity, only the great-grandchildren of the original crew who would have been born on the way there, would ever get there...I suspect the kids would not agree with the adults and they'd change their minds and goals and head someplace else...like back home.
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