Extra-Solar Terrestrial Planet
The First Earth-like Planet Outside Our Solar System Has Been Found
Gliese 581 C is orbiting a red dwarf star 20.5 light years from Earth. This is the first terrestrial planet to be found outside our solar system.
A dream of astronomers and space enthusiasts has finally been fulfilled. We don't know much about Gliese 581 C yet, other that it is somewhat larger than Earth and it's year is 13 of ours. It could be a frozen water planet like Europa, or it could be clement planet not much hotter or colder than Earth.
581 C orbits a red dwarf star, a type of star that burns cooler but longer than our own. 581 C is so close to it's star that it would dominate the skyline. 581 C may not rotate fast enough to have a day.
The proximity of 581 C to Earth may open up the possibility of sending a probe there in the future (though it could take many decades to reach the planet, and signals traveling back would take 20.5 years to reach us). Even more promising is that most stars close to Earth are red dwarfs. 581 C may indicate that red dwarfs are especially hospitable to the formation of terrestrial planets, and we can turn a critical eye to all the systems close to us.
The fact that we have found an extra-solar planet so quickly in our search (the planet finding technique used in this case has been around for less than a decade), may mean that terrestrial planets are more abundant that we once thought.
