New Planet Discovered

Hey Folks. Welcome up to The View From Silverhorn Mountain. I hope you are doing great as Spring finally comes upon us with a little warmer weather and some sunshine, at least where I am....

I just came across an article written by SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer that is hot off the presses, telling us that astronomers have discovered a planet outside of our solar system that could possibly support life. According to the article, the planet, called 581c which loosely translated is pronounced Five-Eighty-one-see and means..um..newly found planet....

The astronomers who discovered the planet say it's just the right size, might have water and is only a short commute at about 120 trillion miles away. Unfortunately the sun it orbits is smaller and cooler than ours, but, regardless of what the real estate agent says, you can't have everything when you are looking to move to a new neighborhood.

Now pay attention folks, this is where it gets a little complicated, the planet was discovered by the European Southern Observatory's telescope in La Silla, Chile. That scope has a gizmo that "splits light to find wobbles in different wave lengths" Exactly what I thought.... and it's those very same wobbles that reveal the existence of other worlds which is also exactly what I thought...could it be that the wobbles are caused by a little too much venus juice in the punch?

All I know is that it must be some freakin' telescope the Boys From Brazil...ah..no the Boys From Chile are using, better than the one I use here at the Lodge to observe passing satellites on a clear night.

One of the things that amazes me about astronomy is the imagination that must be required to do that job....I mean, how else can you explain what these folks can figure out looking through a telescope. They say that the new planet is circling a red dwarf star, that goes by the name Gliese 581. Somehow they know that these stars are low-energy, and last longer than other stars, obviously because they are low energy. That is why I always tell my wife I am going to live longer than others, I am low energy....

Scientists are going to start looking at all the other planets with dim stars, (they should turn the telescope on planet Hollywood) because they have new hope for the other 80 percent of the stars near earth that are red dwarfs...you do know what this means don't you......? Yeah, you say you do, but do you?

Anyway, I digress, back to the Magic Telescope....Through this fabulous instrument scientists can also figure out that the new planet is five times heavier than earth....huh? C'mon...not only do they want us to believe they know how much earth weighs...they also want us to believe they know how much a star 120 trillion miles away weighs...and they also are trying to convince us they know how many trillion miles away it is....man...this is some telescope....

This of course is all theory and could be wrong, look how long we thought the moon was made of cheese....however, the popular theory is that Planet 581c could have an atmosphere, and if it does, it might be too hot or too cold. But, forever the optimists, the astronomers believe the average temperature is somewhere between 32 and 104 degrees. Hmmm...sounds great...

The astronmers say that they will eventually find more planets like 581c...again...how do they know that?

If you go....remember, it's 20.5 light years away, so better start banking some vacation time now.

Might pay to pack some diet pills because the astronmers say you will get heavier fast, and because it orbits it's sun every 13 days you are going to age quickly. Gravity on planet 581c is 1.6 times stronger than earth's so you are going to walk a little slower and need a good pair of lightweight shoes.
Although scientists have figured out how much it weighs, how far away it is, what the temperature likey is, and other stuff that I find a little hard to swallow, they can't figure out how to get there in a lifetime....so that might be something to consider, talk about your long car drives....

Don't forget to check out Marcello's Garden Gnome Stuff!
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