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The family of planets circling a relatively close dwarf star has grown to six, including a potential rocky world at least seven times more massive than Earth that is properly located for liquid water to exist on its surface, a condition believed to be necessary for life.
Scientists added three new planets to three discovered in 2008 orbiting an orange star called HD 40307, which is roughly three-quarters as massive as the sun and located about 42 light-years away in the constellation Pictor.
Of particular interest is the outermost planet, which is believed to fly around its parent star over 200 days, a distance that places it within HD 40307's so-called "habitable zone."
The planet specs are the ones that crack me up. 7.1 earth masses and the media is calling it "habitable"
200lbs x 7 +- = 1,400 lbs, some of the overweight folks on earth might way as much as 3,500lbs there.
Habitable??? Really. I know who should be on that first spaceship...
It says that it is in the habitable zone, not that it is habitable. There still isn't enough data known about it to determine that. Atmospheric makeup and pressure, presence of a magnetic field, etc.
Plus don't you think that if started and evolved there that it would have evolved to deal with that sort of gravity? Perhaps something alive on that planet would find ours lacking the necessary gravity to remain healthy, similarly to how Lunar gravity wouldn't be suitable for us to live in long term.
The planet specs are the ones that crack me up. 7.1 earth masses and the media is calling it "habitable"
200lbs x 7 +- = 1,400 lbs, some of the overweight folks on earth might way as much as 3,500lbs there.
Habitable??? Really. I know who should be on that first spaceship...
The gravity has yet to be determined. We need to know its radius and density before we can calculate its gravity. Considering the metallicity of its star is significantly less than Sol, it is reasonable to assume that any planet in that solar system will be significantly less dense than Earth.
For example, if the planet had a radius of 12,250 kilometers (almost twice that of Earth) and the same density as Earth, the planet would have a gravity of 1.92 G and a mass of 7.08 times that of Earth. But if the planet had a radius of 15,450 kilometers and half of Earth's density, the planet would have a gravity of 1.21 G, and still have a mass of 7.1 times that of Earth.
If we use the metallicity of the star as the density for the planet, then the planet would have to have a 18,100 kilometer radius (2.8 times the radius of Earth), to have 7.08 Earth masses, and have a gravity of 0.879 G.
It says that it is in the habitable zone, not that it is habitable. There still isn't enough data known about it to determine that. Atmospheric makeup and pressure, presence of a magnetic field, etc.
I think the word you are looking for is hospitable. The planet is in the habitable zone, but that does not necessarily make the planet hospitable for human life. The habitable zone merely means that water can exist in a liquid state, nothing more.
Plus don't you think that if started and evolved there that it would have evolved to deal with that sort of gravity? Perhaps something alive on that planet would find ours lacking the necessary gravity to remain healthy, similarly to how Lunar gravity wouldn't be suitable for us to live in long term.
Absolutely. Although we do not know what the gravity of the planet is ... yet.
Considering that the age of the extrasolar system is only 1.2 billion years old, I seriously doubt there is anything more than microbial life forms, if that.
I think the word you are looking for is hospitable. The planet is in the habitable zone, but that does not necessarily make the planet hospitable for human life. The habitable zone merely means that water can exist in a liquid state, nothing more.
Yeah, hospitable is what I would have meant. Thought they were interchangeable.
Come to think of it, I included atmospheric makeup to my post, despite the fact that I have always said that what is toxic to us here on Earth, may be an alien life form's necessity. Likewise, our necessities such as oxygen and H2O may be toxic to an alien life form. However, I find it highly unlikely for surface life to exist without an adequate magnetic field for protection, though subsurface life may still be possible.
That's what I get for multitasking... I was wondering why it was such a big deal.
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