Gliese 581: Über Earth
I’m a real contrarian, I know this. as do many who have to interact with me on a regular basis. Some find it endearing, most just find it annoying.
When I started this blog, I promised myself that I wouldn’t write about what everyone else was writing about. I was going to be different. Here, you were going to get stuff that no one else was writing about dammit, and you were going to like it.
So, my initial reaction to writing about the discovery of an earth-like planet, Gliese 581, a planet that everyone was calling “Super Earth”, was to let it go. I mean for chrissake, everyone was on about it. What could I possibly add to the discussion?
The thing that changed my very stubborn mind was my readers. I mean, I love you guys, I really do. You emailed me and kept asking for me to write a post about it. Well, of course I would cave in, without you, I’d be just an interstellar fart blogging in the cosmic winds of the blogosphere.
Besides, I’ve already told you I’m your astronomical slave, remember? Yours is but to command…
The first thought that came to my mind when I heard the term Super Earth was that they must have found the home planet of Superman, Krypton, and that soon we would have a need for kryptonite in order to control the freak bastard. I was already devising ways to get some before anyone else.
Then I remembered how big the galaxy is and that it would be unlikely that, even if he could fly at the speed of light, he couldn’t get here for another twenty years (Gliese 581 is about 20.5 light years away). I let that problem go for a bit.
Here’s a really cool video from our friends at News in Space that does a great job of giving the details of the discovery:
So, does this discovery really surprise anyone?
Don’t get me wrong, the discovery of Gleise 581 is very cool, I just don’t think it should come as any surprise that we found a planet so like the Earth. I think this is the first of what will be many such discoveries.
So far we’ve only scratched the surface when it comes to finding extrasolar planets. To date, we’ve found over 200. Two hundred. That’s it. In a galaxy containing over 100 billion stars, many of which are like the Sun. There’s many more where that came from.
It’s great that the first earth-like planet we found was Superman’s home, but we’ve only just begun. As we expand our search and our detectors become more sophisticated, we’re going to be cataloging a lot more of these types of discoveries. It makes much more sense to me that the galaxy is filled with planets like ours, than it does that the Earth is the ONLY planet of it’s kind anywhere.
Just you wait, soon we’re going to find the Silver Surfer’s home planet, Caprica, Vulcan, and Tatooine.
Technorati Tags: earthlike planets, extrasolar planets, gliese 581, superman
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POSTED IN: planets, skewed perspective
7 opinions for Gliese 581: Über Earth
Dave
May 4, 2007 at 8:29 am
Wouldn’t this planet be much older than our system, meaning if intelligent life did evolve there, wouldn’t they me older as well?
Maybe this is where all those UFOs come from, perhaps they even seeded earth by accident by ejecting their garbage as they flew past?
Frederica
May 4, 2007 at 11:14 am
Let’s see…
A (hunky) astronomical SLAVE, wearing astro-shorts (no less), doting a Spank ray (never know…), exploring a newly discovered super-planet orbiting around a weird-looking sun…
Now that beats the partly dying sun scenario !
*grins*
himselfe
May 5, 2007 at 5:10 am
I think it’s important for any good site to strike a balance between providing unique content and covering important issues. It’s all well and good avoiding most hype topics and concentrating on quality original media, it’s what sets good sites apart, but some subjects are unavoidable, and when big things happen I would personally find it more detrimental than good to avoid it.
Sure everybody else might be covering it, but that doesn’t mean they’re doing it well. There has been a lot of inaccuracies and ambiguities in the mainstream media surrounding Gliese 581 c, I’ve found my self correcting many people over the idea that we’ve found water on the planets (as many British media outlets have implied) by explaining that we have ‘estimated’ that water could be on the surface given our current models and understanding of planet formation.
Even if all other sources were to be factually accurate it doesn’t hurt to add your own twist to a subject, especially one so important.
Now why is it important? Not because it’s surprising, for any rational mind as you have stated this news shouldn’t in the least bit be surprising, and indeed the ’shock and surprise’ surrounding the subject can be rather annoying. It has nothing to do with the planet itself being special, it is reasonable to expect that this planet will turn out to be nothing out of the ordinary and quite possibly uninspiring compared to some of the planets out there. No, the reason this find is important is because it finally proves that there are Earth like planets out there just waiting to be found, and it gives strength and credence to those of us who have been saying this all along. Finds like this are what pushes the boundaries of common acceptance and that is a much needed thing.
Shannon
May 5, 2007 at 10:08 am
I tried posting a comment last night. Aparently my computer curse continues.
I agree that this planet sould be no surprise to anyone who’s given the prospect more then a moment of thought. It is exciting, but no great surprise. I keep thinking of the movie Contact, and the part where they talk about what a huge waste of space it would be if the universe did not contain some other form of life (and Earth like planets). That is not the way nature works. We’ve found life in all its forms on this planet, in some of the most inhospitable places, we should not close our minds off to the idea of finding it in other places.
And since we did all ready find Superman’s home planet, and–according to you–Vulcan, and Caprica aren’t far behind, I just hope we don’t make it to the center of the Milky Way only to find that Star Trek: The Final Frontier was on to something. Shatner’s ego is big enough.
Tony
May 6, 2007 at 3:13 am
@himselfe: You’re absolutely correct about striking a balance, I realize I need to do that very thing, hence my post. I feel real strongly though that I won’t post on a topic unless I have something to add to the discussion. Both Bad Astonomy and Astroprof had done a real good job, in my opinion, blogging about the discovery so I just didn’t see the point.
About all I had to add was what I ended up posting, I even made a graphic.
I know my tongue-in-cheek post made it seem as if it wasn’t all that important, but I agree, it is important in the sens that we now have actual observations that a planet similar to Earth does exist.
@Frederica: I am your astronomical slave, make me show you what’s up there, just be gentle. BTW, those astro shorts are painful, and they make my butt look big.
@Shannon: It wasn’t your computer, the servers were real screwy then, I tried to post around that time and had problems too.
Contact goes down as my all-time favorite science movie. But then, I would have had Carl Sagan’s baby if he’d ever asked.
BTW, I think Shatner is the center of the universe. He’s said as much.
Shannon
May 6, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Hmm…you and Carl Sagan breeding. Wow, now that’s gonna be one um…cute…baby. But I agree with the idea. Sagan was a unique and lovely mind, I might have agreed to have his baby. Contact is easily on my list of top ten science movies. And in some backward, alternate universe Shatner could very well be the center of the universe. It would explain a lot. Like why I only get red lights, and the deal with American Idol.
Frederica
May 6, 2007 at 5:47 pm
Let’s hope the center of the Universe isn’t a supermassive black hole. That would tarnish Shatner’s reputation a tad. Wait… no, maybe it wouldn’t.
I enjoy having an astronomical slave no doubt ! show me more, baby ! I want to be starry-eyed !
On a more serious note and by the way, I would LOVE to see REAL pictures/occurences of Gliese 581. Artistic renditions and wild guesses are awesome,but is there anything real that we cam look at ? Even remote hints would be cool…. any link/info would be very welcome.
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