'Super-Earth' is spotted 14 light years away

[seeder 31,266]

'Super-Earth' is spotted just 14 light years away: Wolf 1061c is the closest 'habitable' planet outside our solar system ever found

Wolf 1061c has more than four times the mass of the Earth

It is the closest potentially habitable planet found outside our solar system

Planet sits within zone where it might be possible for water and life to exist

It joins an elite number of relatively nearby planets that could support life

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3362741/Super-Earth-just-14-light-years-away-Wolf-1061c-closest-habitable-planet-outside-solar-found.html

[Hyades 6,382]

Here some related information on Wolf 1061c, very interesting, thanks to share that.

http://www.smh.com.a...216-gloy0w.html

That would be approximately 1,3 billion miles from us, using the Sun-Earth (light-years) distance at 93 million miles if I'm correct!

Edited December 16, 2015 by Hyades

[Harte 18,659]

"Super" Earth, eh?

Somebody tell Kal-El.

Harte

[OverSword 58,272]

Since one side of the planet always faces the sun maybe we could colonize the perpetual twilight area where temperatures would be the most comfortable. We could name the planet "Serling" after Rod Serling the creator of the TV show "The Twilight Zone"

Edited December 17, 2015 by OverSword

[Astral Hillbilly 223]

Assuming a red dwarf star would be cooler than our Sun, this planet may not get as hot as we'd like to think, even if it is tidally locked with it's Sun.

At 14 light years distance, it doesn't matter anyway because none of us are ever going to be there.

[moon tide 156]

If it turns out to be rich in life lets hope man never gets his hands on it. The first thing he'll want to do is start drilling for oil and then hacking down it's forests. Hey, maybe he'll even want to test his latest nuclear bombs there.

[Infernal Gnu 178]

YES! All we need now is a nice local wormhole and we can begin to evacuate from our hellishly overheating planet, much like the Interstellar movie Plan A scenario.

[Imaginarynumber1 22,821]

Here some related information on Wolf 1061c, very interesting, thanks to share that.

http://www.smh.com.a...216-gloy0w.html

That would be approximately 1,3 billion miles from us, using the Sun-Earth (light-years) distance at 93 million miles if I'm correct!

You are not correct. The average distance from the sun is 1 AU (Astronomical Unit), NOT a light year. 1 AU is 93 million miles. 1 light year is 5.8 trillion miles.

So this plant is 83.3 TRILLION miles from us. 1.3 billion miles would put this planet right around Uranus, coincidentally enough....

[Bavarian Raven 1,619]

Assuming a red dwarf star would be cooler than our Sun, this planet may not get as hot as we'd like to think, even if it is tidally locked with it's Sun.

At 14 light years distance, it doesn't matter anyway because none of us are ever going to be there.

If money wasn't an object, we could likely create a generation ship that could reach it.

[coolguy 1,564]

This is cool I wonder if there is human life on that planet

[Rlyeh 17,841]

This is cool I wonder if there is human life on that planet

That doesn't make much sense.

[Harte 18,659]

1.3 billion miles would put this planet right around Uranus, coincidentally enough....

Preparation H will clear that right up.

Harte

[spud the mackem 6,125]

Could humans survive ?? I think not as the gravity would defeat us if the planet is 4 times Earth size.

[EBE Hybrid 442]

Being in the Goldilocks Zone would certainly make the planet an interesting place to look. The possibility of life on the planet is an interesting one, firstly how thick is the atmosphere? If the atmosphere is too thin then the planet surface would be very susceptible to meteor impacts thus reducing the possibility of surface life having the opportunity to establish itself, evolve to multicell organisms and eventually become sentient. Marine life may stand a better chance of developing, as the planet may be tidally locked the water would presumably be pulled more to the hot side of the planet, which I imagine would mean a much higher average water temperature than on Earth. Whilst life may exist in the ocean it would presumably be very different to the life in Earths oceans although simple organisms and bacteria may flourish as they do around hydro-thermal vents in the Earth oceans. If the water side of the planet faces the star it would not be unreasonable to expect greater rates of evaporation than we see on Earth, this may lead to weather patterns caused by thermal convection currents and a thicker atmosphere, but having a thicker atmosphere on a hot planet would probably lead to Venus-like atmosphere trapping far more heat than we have on Earth, therefore there may be life Jim, but not as we know it!!!!

Edited December 18, 2015 by EBE Hybrid

[Frank Merton 17,411]

We are not going to find advanced life orbiting in the "Goldilocks zone" around a red dwarf. Those things are too active (flare activity) and dangerous and in the G-zone one is going to have a tidal lock.

I think red dwarfs are popular in this context because they are so numerous. If you rule them out you cut the number of planets that qualify by about eighty percent.

[highdesert50 932]

It is interesting to note that there is controversy with regard to the idea of the Goldilock's zone or circumstellar habitable zone as it is historically modeled around our solar system and weighted to carbon-based life. But, even within our solar system's Goldilocks zone it seems we must consider the scale of time relative to the evolution of life. Mars holds promise of discovery of microbial remnants, but I would imagine it would be rather difficult to even find remnants of life on Venus or even our own moon. It seems there is a large range of macro and micro environmental variables for establishing a carbon-based life form to include a healthy window of time to evolve it. And, I wonder if we are being too Earthly-centric in our definitions and desires to find a remote biological cousin.

[Frank Merton 17,411]

I have yet to be shown a credible idea of how it might be possible for life to exist in any form other than carbon chains in a liquid water medium -- the notorious "life as we know it." People can speculate all they want but it seems unlikely in the extreme.

That said, I also don't think the terminology adopted by those seeking life out there is accurate. "Super earth," meaning a rocky planet significantly larger than the earth, is, while technically correct, very misleading as it sound as though it might be something better than the earth, but any such planet in a Goldilocks orbit is not going to have land masses.

"Goldilocks orbit" is another misleader -- it sounds as though any such planet is going to be "just right," but the definition -- where liquid water might be present -- is another thing entirely. Red dwarfs have their Goldilocks zone too, but that doesn't mean they are anywhere remotely likely to be inhabitable.

[Hawken 8,200]

Since Alpha Centauri is the closes star to our system, What would that make the Wolf System to ours?

[crandles57 5]

Since Alpha Centauri is the closes star to our system, What would that make the Wolf System to ours?

A team of Australian scientists has found the closest potentially habitable planet orbiting a star just 14 light years away.

At 130 trillion kilometres it might sound impossibly distant, but Wolf 1061 in the constellation Ophiucus is the 35th closest star to Earth.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/astronomy/wolf-1061c-closest-planet-found-orbiting-in-a-stars-habitable-zone-14-light-years-from-earth-20151216-gloy0w.html

[Zalmoxis 260]

Well, 14 light years doesn't sound that far. When I was a kid we were told the closest star was 20 light years. Our science has advanced. I didn't know about tidal lock. Soon I will get on reading about it. I would say as per the other responses of the other UM users, I really doubt life exists on panet Wolf.

[Waspie_Dwarf 16,488]

Well, 14 light years doesn't sound that far. When I was a kid we were told the closest star was 20 light years.

Sorry but that is nonsense. The distance to Alpha Centauri has been known since 1839.

[Zalmoxis 260]

Sorry but that is nonsense. The distance to Alpha Centauri has been known since 1839.

Don't be sorry. It is true that I was taught this bogus information and it isn't the only bogus information I was given while in that critical learning stage. I was misinformed.

[Derek Willis 1,756]

Sorry but that is nonsense. The distance to Alpha Centauri has been known since 1839.

Some people are seriously being taught that the universe was created in seven days, 6,000 years ago.