[headdie]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/first-habitable-planet-discovered.html

Basically the planet is technically habitable, though gravity is around twice earth norm and the atmosphere is dense with carbon dioxide the significance is that this is the first time using climate modelling that a planet has show to be habitable.

[Herra Tohtori]

20 LY away?

where do I sign for a spot in the colony ship

[Bobboau]

too bad it wasn't a more reactive chemistry (chlorine or oxygen), that would have suggested the possibility of life.

[Nohiki]

That's Caprica and it has been nuked, don't get your hopes up

[BloodEagle]

I find it a little hard to get excited about something like this, knowing that it's too far away to visit.  :/

Oh, and is anyone else getting advertisements for Rubenesque brassieres? 

[SirCumference]

Too bad there won't be any more space shuttles. NASA launched the last one yesterday

[BengalTiger]

So the next big headline will be:
The first inhabited planet outside of Sol discovered.

The question is: when?

[Ace]

That's Caprica and it has been nuked, don't get your hopes up

As a certain dark haired Raptor pilot onced said: It's "habbibable."

[Mongoose]

Too bad there won't be any more space shuttles. NASA launched the last one yesterday

There's still one launch left in July, and shuttles wouldn't be what we'd fly for 20 light-years anyway.

[Nuclear1]

20 LY away?

where do I sign for a spot in the colony ship

[Bobboau]

There's still one launch left in July, and shuttles wouldn't be what we'd fly for 20 light-years anyway.

no but they could have been what we flew to the ship that did take us 20LY.

[watsisname]

I think this is the right article:
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1005/1005.5098v2.pdf

Will need to read up on this later.  Very cool finding.

[Astronomiya]

I see no actual atmospheric spectra of any kind.  All I see are simulations and models.  This is all well and good, but someone ****ed up telling this to the media (or the media did, which is more than possible).  Until I see actual spectra taken of Gliese 581d's atmosphere, this is overblown, and I will maintain that the Yahoo article is blatantly false.  Those spectra are going to be a long time coming, too, as I recall that the Gliese 581 system does not have any transiting planets on our line of sight.

EDIT:  This is the most recent paper they've posted to the ArXiv, which I think is what these press releases are getting based off of.

It's more simulations.  There is not a confirmation of the first habitable exoplanet at all, only that it may lie in the habitable zone for some plausible cases of atmospheric composition.

[Nuke]

we got to invade them before they invade us.

[SpardaSon21]

Nuke wants to invade instead of nuke?  What's going on here?

[Mongoose]

Clearly he means invade the system, then nuke the planet.

[SirCumference]

Maybe we'll find the Vasudans...

[redsniper]

What? MORE Gliesians? To arms, men!

[watsisname]

I see no actual atmospheric spectra of any kind.  All I see are simulations and models.  This is all well and good, but someone ****ed up telling this to the media (or the media did, which is more than possible).  Until I see actual spectra taken of Gliese 581d's atmosphere, this is overblown, and I will maintain that the Yahoo article is blatantly false.  Those spectra are going to be a long time coming, too, as I recall that the Gliese 581 system does not have any transiting planets on our line of sight.

EDIT:  This is the most recent paper they've posted to the ArXiv, which I think is what these press releases are getting based off of.

It's more simulations.  There is not a confirmation of the first habitable exoplanet at all, only that it may lie in the habitable zone for some plausible cases of atmospheric composition.

Yep, you're right.  The study is using atmospheric modelling to determine what kind of atmospheric compositions and pressures could make the planet potentially habitable.  They found that, quote, "atmospheres with over 10 bar CO2 and varying amounts of background gas (e.g., N2) yield global mean temperatures above 0°C for both land and ocean-covered surfaces." 

Somewhere between the study and the press article someone ****ed up and said that the planet actually had a CO2 atmosphere. 

Gravity is twice what is on Earth, doubling the weight of anyone standing on the surface, and the atmosphere is dense with carbon dioxide.

****ing press release idiocy.  Seriously.

[Nuke]

Clearly he means invade the system, then nuke the planet.

my usuall plans for an invasion is nuke the site from orbit, then dawn our radiation suits and stripmine the place for its resources, this process can also be done with robots.

I see no actual atmospheric spectra of any kind.  All I see are simulations and models.  This is all well and good, but someone ****ed up telling this to the media (or the media did, which is more than possible).  Until I see actual spectra taken of Gliese 581d's atmosphere, this is overblown, and I will maintain that the Yahoo article is blatantly false.  Those spectra are going to be a long time coming, too, as I recall that the Gliese 581 system does not have any transiting planets on our line of sight.

EDIT:  This is the most recent paper they've posted to the ArXiv, which I think is what these press releases are getting based off of.

It's more simulations.  There is not a confirmation of the first habitable exoplanet at all, only that it may lie in the habitable zone for some plausible cases of atmospheric composition.

Yep, you're right.  The study is using atmospheric modelling to determine what kind of atmospheric compositions and pressures could make the planet potentially habitable.  They found that, quote, "atmospheres with over 10 bar CO2 and varying amounts of background gas (e.g., N2) yield global mean temperatures above 0°C for both land and ocean-covered surfaces." 

Somewhere between the study and the press article someone ****ed up and said that the planet actually had a CO2 atmosphere. 

Gravity is twice what is on Earth, doubling the weight of anyone standing on the surface, and the atmosphere is dense with carbon dioxide.

****ing press release idiocy.  Seriously.

this wasnt the first time gliese has come up as "potentially habitable" seems a similar article was posted around the time it was discovered. all we knew then was its mass, that it was tidally locked and that it was near or in the goldielocks zone. then somone decided to run ciomputer models as a what if scenario and has determined that given the correct chemical makeup that the planet may be habitable. the media always screws things up. they dont know how to separate fact from opinion, nor do they bother to understand how science works. so they go "lol, its habitable", instead of "according to a computer model the planet is theoretically capable of supporting life assuming the right conditions exist". media doesnt like long headlines.