scientists found a new planet?

I read this story. They didn't say it looked "almost exactly" like earth, they said it was the proper distance away from it's Sun to be in the proper temperature range to support life. So yes, there could be life on this planet. It may be an entirely new species, or it may be just like us. Then again, the article I read also stated this temperature range could include as far from the Sun as Mars or as close as Venus, so it may be too hot or cold, but it's as close a temperature range to support life that they've ever seen in distant galaxies,

Upon further investigation, I see that the planet "may possibly have liquid oceans and drifting continents". It's called Gliese 581c, because it orbits the star Gliese 581. It is closer to it's Sun than Earth is to Sol, but it's Sun is smaller/weaker than ours, so the two balance it out to be around the right temperature.

OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb was discovered using the technique of gravitational microlensing. What was observed was a fleeting rise in the light of a star near the center of the galaxy. This increase in observed light was due to the passage of an unseen star through the line of sight that focussed the light from the more distant star through its gravity. The pattern of light variation also suggested the presence of a planet of about 5 Earth masses at around 2 to 4 AU from the intervening star. The lensing star that hosts the planet has not been observed but is believed to be about 20,000 light years away. Given all this I think it is very inaccurate to say that the planet looks "almost exactly like the Earth", we have essentially no way of knowing anything about the planet bar the fact of its existence at present.

The Gliese 581 system has been in the news more recently and was discovered by the radial velocity or "wobble" method. Gliese 581b was already known. Gliese 581c received most of the initial press because it was the small, around 5 Earth masses. The star is a red dwarf and some reports suggested that the average temperature on the planet could be similar to that on Earth. Recent data suggests otherwise and a third planet Gliese 581d orbiting further out and somewhat larger is thought to be a better candidate for Earth-like temperatures.

If it does harbor life, I cant wait for the 15 billion year space voyage to go check it out.

Most definitely.

You have to remember that there are more stars in our universe than there are grains of sand on all the beaches on earth put together, and just as many planets, so I would say its a raging certanty that outher life forms exist out there.

Problem is, the distances are so great between them (the one you referred to is [2.3652 x 10 14th] km distant from earth you would not get their this year or next.

Because of the vast distances between stars (even the closest star (right next door) in our galaxy) is 4.07 x 10 12th km distant we can never say for sure though. That is really why SETI was a failure.

In fact if the star you refer to is 25,000 ly away it must be in our galaxy and quite close (astronomically speaking), since the cosest satellite galaxy, the Maglennic Cloud is 170,000 ly away.

I domt think it would be viewable by any telescope at that distance though, let alone exactly like Earth

It is highly unlikely that we will ever meet one of these life forms unfortunately even at warp speed 9!.

Good question though

You must be thinking of an extrasolar planet called 'Gliese 851c.' It's not 25,000 light years away though, and the *only* thing that makes it sort of similar to Earth is that it could have water on its surface and temperatures similar to those found here. Here's the data on Gliese 851c ---

MASS -- 5 times more than Earth
DIAMETER -- 12,000 miles (about the same as Earth)
DISTANCE FROM EARTH -- 20.4 light years
SURFACE TEMP -- 32 to 102 Fahrenheit
LENGTH of YEAR -- 13 days (time to orbit its star)
DISTANCE FROM ITS STAR -- 6-million miles (Earth is 96-million miles from the sun)

More details at this website ==>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_581_c

No-one can possibly form an intelligent guess to answer this question. People who want to believe will say yes and people who don't want to believe will say no. Any evidence one way or the other will never be known until we send probes there!

The possibility of sending a probe 25,000 light years away is etremely unlikely now or in the future. So your question is moot.

We don't even have the ability yet to travel 4.3 light years to the nearest star.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb

This planet is too far away to be anything but "detected". It IS within our galaxy, if it was outside it it almost certainly would not have been detected. From what is known , which isn't very much, the planet is unlikely to support life of ANY kind.

it's a possibility that it is inhabited by a whole new species, but due to its distance, it would be impossible to prove it at the moment. also, due to the fact that it is indeed on another planet, the species that might live there obviously do not have the same genes as us, so again, it would be impossible for them to be anything but a different species. due to the fact that we are able to detect such a planet, and the fact that no one from that planet is visiting us, we are forced to assume that they are either A) less, or as advanced as us, B) non existent, or C) do not have the resources to make a vessel to reach our planet, assuming that they even have the plans.

also, when you say far away from our galaxy (25 light years) are you aware that our galaxy is approximately 100,000 light years across? 25 light years is well within the boundaries of our galaxy.

It is indeed possible for life to exist on that planet, but it would be hard to prove it, and also impossible to tell how likely it is.

While anything's possible, the planet they found orbits a red dwarf star, and very close - it's orbit is only 8 or 9 days, if I recall correctly. It's about 5 times the size of Earth, meaning that it's gravity at the surface is 1.5 to 2 times what we'd feel.

If there's life there, who knows.... I'm doubting it, but I have no evidence either way.

i think there is life in other plantes its crazy to think that only the earth has life . Thers is millions of plantes that we cant get too that i am shure that one of them most have life