3 Earth like Planets found

[startrekmaniac]

Just read this. http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080616-super-earths.html

 

[Linguofreak]

There's a difference between the term "super-Earth" used in the article, and "Earthlike." All three of these planets orbit closer than Mercury.

Also, The smallest of them is also 4 Earth masses. While that gets down into the range where it could support life if it were in the habitable zone, it's still quite heavy.

Super Earth merely means "Probably not big enough to be a gas giant, but bigger than Earth."

 

[mrspacely]

im sure theres a habitable moon or 2 at least able to support some life forms. nevertheless, i say get used to finding out the galaxy is full of habitable planets and life forms. would it really be that much of a surprise?

 

[Dr Pepper]

im sure theres a habitable moon or 2 at least able to support some life forms. nevertheless, i say get used to finding out the galaxy is full of habitable planets and life forms. would it really be that much of a surprise?

I don't know. The farthest orbit of the trio only takes about twenty days to complete, and HD 40307 is still quite big (0.77xSol in Diameter; 1/5 as bright and about 1,100K cooler surface than Sol). Whatever is that close is bound to be quite hot, perhaps even too hot. Not to mention most likely bathed in radiation.

 

[Linguofreak]

I don't know. The farthest orbit of the trio only takes about twenty days to complete, and HD 40307 is still quite big (0.77xSol in Diameter; 1/5 as bright and about 1,100K cooler surface than Sol). Whatever is that close is bound to be quite hot, perhaps even too hot. Not to mention most likely bathed in radiation.

Well, actually it's even brighter than 1/5th of the sun for our purposes. Sometimes you'll see luminosities given for just the visual spectrum, sometimes for the whole spectrum. The 1/5th figure is just the visible emissions of the star. But for how much it will heat up a planet orbiting it, you've got to have the whole-spectrum luminosity, which in this case is a bit more than 1/3 of the sun. Because it's cooler, about half of it's emissions end up in the infrared, which doesn't get counted for visible luminosity. In any case, the furthest out of these three planets is getting almost 3 times the sunlight that mercury gets. 'Nuff said.

 

[Dr Pepper]

Well, actually it's even brighter than 1/5th of the sun for our purposes. Sometimes you'll see luminosities given for just the visual spectrum, sometimes for the whole spectrum. The 1/5th figure is just the visible emissions of the star. But for how much it will heat up a planet orbiting it, you've got to have the whole-spectrum luminosity, which in this case is a bit more than 1/3 of the sun. Because it's cooler, about half of it's emissions end up in the infrared, which doesn't get counted for visible luminosity. In any case, the furthest out of these three planets is getting almost 3 times the sunlight that mercury gets. 'Nuff said.

Makes sense. Thanks for the correction!