While browsing the webb I've been hearing some rumors about a recent discovery about an earth-like exoplanet. When checking wikipedia I found this article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_581) that states that "a planet about 1.5x the size of the Earth discovered in 2007. The latter is notable as it is the first exoplanet discovered which lies within the habitable zone of the star."
I thought this would be all over the news by now, but I have found nothing. The wikipedia article seems a bit unreliable too. I have no idea if this is true or just some kind of hoax. Is there someone here who knows whats going on?

A little use of Google News and here we go:
http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=36...=27&sid=ENV

Oh, so it was true. Found nothing on BBC or on any other major site. Guess I should use google news instead
Thanks for confirming it, this is really exciting news.

Well, you have to search for it... so it's good if you see an uniformative blurb at some other site and really want to go digging for meatier articles.

I'm pretty sure this refers to OGLE 2005-BLG-390LB - That's a largish probably icy planet at ~5.5 Earth Masses, ~2.2AU from its sun, probably around 2.4x earth diameter. Surface gravity should be pretty close to Earth's.

Kind of at the extreme limit of "habitable" but arguable.

I don't know, Helvick. The news article, if it's reliable, specifically identifies the star as Gleise 861 while the OGLE object "presumes" that it's orbiting an M-class dwarf. The article also states that the planet's orbital radius is around 0.1 AU. Doesn't sound like they're talking about the same planets.

Noticed the dateline on the article was today as well. If this is for real, the rest of the media should catch fire shortly...

This is the feature story today on Space.com...

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0704..._exoplanet.html

It's now being reported on Space.com and FoxNews.com

Astronomers Believe They May Have Found Earth-Like Planet

Gee, only 20.5 light years away....maybe we should make sure New Horizons' final trajectory is in this direction.

-Mike

You're right - I was caught in a cross post there and hadn't done the Google thing effectively. The story looks like it is hitting the wires after all. Interesting that this Red Dwarf has already been identified as having a Neptune class planet even closer in with a 5 day orbit so this find makes for a really interesting little solar system.

Assuming its all true - I find it odd that the story has hit solely via the PR news wires and not more normal astro news sites. There's nothing on the press pages of ESO, The Geneva Observatory or Astronomy and Astrophysics. Weird but perhaps the press release just leaked a bit ahead of plan.

One of the internet news services had "It's happy New Year every 13 days!" as the link to their story.

Off hand, given the mass and dimensions, I'm guessing 3 to 4 g's of surface gravity. Interesting to speculate what land plants and animals would look like under those conditions. Sea based life might not see that increase in gravity as such a major factor.

I'd fair kill for a link to real data on this - the eternally repeated AP wire story is wearing thin. One or two of the stories are adding that local gravity is around 1.6g .

Does MSNBC count as a real link?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18293978/

--Greg

Here's a link to the basic data on the Extrasolar Encyclopedia:

http://vo.obspm.fr/exoplanetes/encyclo/sta...l%20581#a_publi

I believe the paper that discusses the discovery is this one:
UDRY S., BONFILS X., DELFOSSE X., FORVEILLE T., MAYOR M., PERRIER C., BOUCHY F., LOVIS C., PEPE F., QUELOZ D. & BERTAUX J.-L. , 2007
The HARPS search for southern extrasolar planets XI.
Astron. & Astrophys. , - , -

It's the last reference for planets around this star, it's recent, and it matches the periodical cited in the news stories. Unfortunately, there's no link to the actual paper or even the abstract.

Bart

Thanks, Bart!

Interesting that the metallicities of red dwarfs seem lower than the solar value. Does this perhaps indicate an enhanced amount of volatiles in the planetary system...?