Water World discovered by Harvard astronomers

The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said it has discovered a so-called super Earth that orbits round a red dwarf star 40 light years from our own planet.

A super Earth is a planet between one and 10 times the mass of our planet, and has been dubbed GJ1214b. The radius of the planet is about 2.7 times that of earth and its density suggests it's made of three quarter water and other ices and one quarter rock.

The astronomers said that there are "tantalizing hints" that the planet has a gaseous atmosphere.

Zachory Berta, a graduate at the Center first spotted a hint of the planet amongst the data accumulated. "Despite its hot temperature, this appears to be a waterworld. It is much smaller, cooler, and more Earthlike than any other known exoplanet."

Berta said some of the water on the planet will be as Ice VII, a crystalline form of water at pressures more than 20,000 times our own planet's sea level atmosphere.

The astronomers located the planet using an array of eight identical 16-inch diameter RC Optical Systems telescopes - each funnels light to an Apogee Alta U42 camera with a charge coupled device chip.

David Charbonneau, who runs the telescope array, said that anyone else with a similar telescope and a good CCD camera could detect it too.

Read more…

oldfoxbob

Cool ET phone home please.

jimbill (not verified)

The same way they explain away any facts, by ignoring them.

jimbill (not verified)

You have no proof there is only one Earth-like planet in the universe. Nice obtuse post you made. Means nothing. I heard penty of that song and dance in the 1960s. Sounds cool and outer-spacy, but has no actual content.

chuva tienes (not verified)

i wish there are aliens...how would overzealous christians explain them since there are no mention of them in the bible?

Ralf_The_Dog (not verified)

Cat Sniffer! Your mother was a rodent!

Jack (not verified)

Their what plants need

mcsween (not verified)

While we know how many dimensions there are (actually you should have referred me to M Theory) we do not know much about these "extra" dimensions. This is the undeveloped science I was referring to. Please take a second to actually read
the post you are replying to before typing a response.

jimbill (not verified)

Yes they have. You are just being silly.

jimbill (not verified)

Yeah, an entire planet to remake Water World on. Of course, there could be something large and hungray waiting there... :-)

jimbill (not verified)

You need to start watching science documentaries. We do know how many dimensions there are. String Theory. Look it up yourself.

Rahhhhhh (not verified)

They are also free to change it to their liking.

Skittles (not verified)

Then why no mention in the bible?

Chris (not verified)

Perhaps God created both? dimwit.

hiasfkkk (not verified)

I respect everyones opinion but that sounds pretty retarded to me. cavemen didnt come here on spaceships.

HootCrackin (not verified)

There are alot of dumb ass people here posting here.

namealso (not verified)

Amazing ignorance out of someone one who appears to have some (very little most likely) rational thought.

YourFace (not verified)

-.-

ct (not verified)

I think we came from this planet since we knew that its sun was about to die us humans had to find a new planet (earth) to survive on.

davec (not verified)

hurry maybe we can make it the new new world and try to remake America, this time we could spell out no welfare.

timmyd (not verified)

Would that include no corporate welfare?

robles (not verified)

Maybe we can drop Kevin Costner off there.

sg (not verified)

The math to determine the gravity on the surface of the planet is not that hard if you know the radius and mass of the planet. In this case if you factor use the numbers given in the article of 10 x earths mass and 2.7 times the radius
you would get a gravity of about 1.3 earth gravities. Here is a calculator for finding gravity. http://www.ajdesigner.com/phpgravity/gravity_acceleration_equation.php I took the mass and radius for the Earth from the Wikipedia article on Earth
and multiplied them by 10 and 2.7

Brian, NC (not verified)

General question how do we know what is habitable or not? Just read the other article on this and that really pissed me off. Who can say where life will and wont spawn and how it will evolve? Ok I know there are some limitations but
really what about "Black Cloud" why would we write a planet off just because the atmospehric pressure is higher, who cares? Already some of our leading scientists are saying the math for our modern day physics is going to have to change because
some of it is being disproved... I mean come on ppl, we dont know what we dont know!

Walt (not verified)

There are things there that would surprise you.

SWEJ (not verified)

"How does water exist for tens of thousands of years at 400 degrees?" Perhaps its got to do with the pressures of more than 20,000 that of Earth.

infineprint (not verified)

Did anyone really read the article ? Atmospheric pressure 20,000 times that on earth nothing from here could survive on that planet----instant crush!

Chris S (not verified)

I bet its like that one planet from Clone Wars "Palamino" where they made the clones. It was a rough like ocean planet! Perhaps there is a civilization of "Cloners" there making a clone army! :-P god i hope im right!

angryred (not verified)

of course, its free... until your about to die and have to wait for care. cheaper to let you die.

mark (not verified)

how does water exits at 400 degrees f?? explain this

Walt (not verified)

I have a vacation package for you in Baghdad. Please contact State Department for travel tips. Or, just check with a returning soldier. Unless you are a mercenary, of course. They love war and we know why. Them and the Ordnance
manufacturers.

point (not verified)

"So what?".. you wrote a commentary...

Max Orbit (not verified)

Mir augered in a few years ago...

Brian, NC (not verified)

that would be cool.....

TheDefender (not verified)

Easy killer. He said explore it by all means - sounds like a liberal spending democrat to me. No need to call him out amongst all this malarkey. Your deep comments were that is "cool"...

Luke (not verified)

The problem here is that its 40 Light Years away. And as far as I know, Light is the fastest possible means of speed. It would take 40 years to get there!

Brian, NC (not verified)

never saw it, but im glad i am not the only dreamer on this forum read thru all the threads and nobody speculate on that at all, just arguing back and forth and getting political and what not... go Chris! gives us something to think
about anyway right? i dont think we are all by ourselves in this HUGE universe...

sarahbergor (not verified)

it is very interesting to know that we have found a planet that could maybe support life and is very much like our own planet.

Matt (not verified)

What makes the pressure on one planet so much greater than it is on another planet? What creates the pressure on the water in the first place? Is it gravity or some other force of nature. Sorry, I only took Rocks for Jocks 101 in high
school. So this kind of cool advances science is new to me.

GuessWho (not verified)

Ahhhh, now it all makes sense. That is how Lefty new about that cool microwave popcorn they have on planet GJ1214b. By the way, has anyone ever popped it with the wrong side up? Just saw a Verizon ad - they have coverage there already
(already imbedded in the "map for that" campaign). Damn, they are good. AT&T sucks.

Its not rocket science (not verified)

We need to engage the elected officials, labor & management; to create an economic stimuls package; that provides tax breaks to domestic AND foriegn companies that manufacture products in the USA with Domestic Content (including
employees) And end of year tax credit to citizens that buy these products labeled with the approved domesitic content. This is a long term solution to our economic crisis in the USA. No tarriffs, keep free and unfair trade; but leverage OUR tax
code to stimulate and achieve the desired results.

drkman (not verified)

Do you think this is where Elrond and Gandalf went at the end of it all? When they sailed away on that boat?? Could be.

Brian, NC (not verified)

Yeah that is the only thing about it, hopefully they find something faster or learn how to use wormhole theory...

sully0481 (not verified)

I LOVE WARS

Brian, NC (not verified)

lol, you saying it was the hoax theory?

andolos (not verified)

why do you americans want to make everything about whts going on in there,who cares about your health care plan?the issue here is: is there life in there?if there is life in there that is one of most ordinary discoveries ever...i dont
want to make it big but it is first time they have found a rocky planet with liquid water not covered in clouds of toxic materials,,,and then u go on about Obama and heathcare plan?that is so yankee!

fiddler (not verified)

Suppose we have developed some technology that can have us travel at the speed of light, then it will take 40 years for us to get to that planet. Once we got there, and send back the pictures or any information also at the speed of
light. So the round trip will take at 80 years, so almost nobody now can see what the creatures look like on that planet...

Brian, NC (not verified)

may not do much good tho becuz it is red dwarf

scottwsomerville (not verified)

Dibs on beachfront property!

Brian, NC (not verified)

I agree, simply fascinating

Motivity (not verified)

Futuristically speaking? LOL.

Advertisement

Login to Comment

Register / Facebook Connect / Google Friend Connect / OpenID