Gliese 581 g

Astronomers have discovered a new planet similar to the Earth in orbit around a nearby star. Gliese 581 g, is the name given to the red dwarf star has been spotted by a team of planet hunters. The planet is situated in the Goldilocks Zone of space around a star where surface temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to form.

An astronomer at the University of California, Steven Vogt said that their findings offer a very compelling case for a potentially habitable planet.The fact that they were able to detect this planet so quickly and so nearby tells them that planets like this must be really common.

If this has been confirmed, then it will be milestone in the history of the solar system. It would the planet ever discovered in other solar system and the first strong contender for a habitable one.Other exoplanets have been discovered but most are gas giants, like Jupiter, that would be inhospitable to life as we know it.Keck telescope in Hawaii has been used by astronomers to study the movement of Gliese 581 g and observed the presence of a number of orbiting planets.

Gliese 581 g has a mass of three to four times that of Earth and takes 37 days to orbit the star. Astronomers believe it is a rocky planet with enough gravity to retain an atmosphere.Vogt said that" We had planets on both sides of the habitable zone — one too hot and one too cold — and now we have one in the middle that's just right," and "Any emerging life forms would have a wide range of stable climates to choose from and to evolve around, depending on their longitude,"

One side of the planet is always facing the star, much as one side of the moon constantly faces Earth. This means that the far side of the planet is constantly in darkness. The most habitable region of the planet would be the line between the light and dark regions