A New Planet Found Orbiting Gliese 876
A planet that is being called “Earth’s Big-Cousin” has been found orbiting a star about 15 light-years away. The planet is 5-7 times as massive as the earth and orbits its star in less than 2 days. This means that it must orbit very close to the star, only about 2 million miles away. Being that close to its star means that it is probably composed of rock, making it the first solid extra-solar planet discovered.
There have been approximately 150 extra-solar planets discovered so far, but they have all been gas giants like Jupiter. There have been no direct observations of Earth size planets because they would be hidden by the glare of the stars that they circle. It is kind of like looking for a pea on the lens of a search light.
A new type of space telescope that is due to be put into orbit in the next few years will have the capability of directly observing Earth size planets. Once they are detected we can use various methods to analyze the light being reflected off of the planets to look for clues of life.
The question of are we alone in the cosmos will probably be answered within the next twenty years. If we do detect evidence of life out there, then the question becomes what do we do next?
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