Odds of Life on Newfound Earth-Size Planet ’100 Percent,’ Astronomer Say
Lynette Cook, Space.com
Fox News
An Earth-size planet has been spotted orbiting a nearby star at a distance that would makes it not too hot and not too cold comfortable enough for life to exist, researchers announced today.
If confirmed, the exoplanet, named Gliese 581g, would be the first Earth-like world found residing in a star’s habitable zone — a region where a planet’s temperature could sustain liquid water on its surface.
And the planet’s discoverers are optimistic about the prospects for finding life there.
“Personally, given the ubiquity and propensity of life to flourish wherever it can, I would say, my own personal feeling is that the chances of life on this planet are 100 percent,” said Steven Vogt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, during a press briefing today. “I have almost no doubt about it.”
His colleague, Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, in Washington, D.C., wasn’t willing to put a number on the odds of life, though he admitted he’s optimistic.
Report from 2009 indicates that a signal was coming from the near by planet Gliese 581g!
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