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Galaxiki Community BlogSubscribe via RSS Earth-like planet only 20 light years away?April 21, 2008by joskirps Gliese 581d is the third planet orbiting the red dwarf star Gliese 581, it's a large terrestrial planet located near the outer edge of the habitable zone. Scientists believe that a greenhouse effect could create temperatures at which water can exist, and therefore the planet may be capable of supporting life.  The Gliese 581 system is very close to the Earth, at least when compared to other stars. Located at a distance of 20.4 light years it's the 87th closest star system to the Sun, although that's still an incredible 193 000 320 000 000 kilometers and it would still take more than 3 million years to travel from the Earth to Gliese using conventional propulsion spaceship technology as we know it.If there's an intelligent civilisation capable of using radio technology and thus emitting radio waves into space it should be easy to detect those signals using large radio telescopes. Communication with a civilisation on Gliese would be possible, although it would take over 20 years for a message to arrive on Gliese, and another 20 years for them to write back to us. Gliese 581 d has a minimum mass of 7.7 Earth masses – it's radius should be 1.2 - 2 times larger than that of Earth and gravity on it's surface would be approximately 1.25 - 2.24 times as strong as on Earth. Such values indicate that the planet could easily keep it's atmosphere and could also allow complex life forms. The Gliese 581 system is estimated to be around 4.3 billion years old, about as old as our own solar system. But even if there is no life in the Gliese 581 system the presence of an Earth-like planet orbiting a star that close to us indicates that such planets shouldn't be so rare in our galaxy, which dramatically boosts the prospects that we are not alone.
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