digg

Join DiggAbout

Discover the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.

What would life be like on planet Gliese 581 C?

members.misty.com — It has been news in the first half of 2007 that a "somewhat earthlike" planet appears to exist in orbit around the star Gliese 581c, at a distance from that star that may favor temperatures suitable for liquid water and life.

Bury
show profanity settings
expand all
  • Purin, on 01/28/2008, -0/+15So, how do you pronounce "Gliese" anyway?
    • h3lx, on 01/28/2008, -2/+9Glee' zuh
      • h3lx, on 01/29/2008, -0/+1Wilhelm Gliese (ˈgliːzə), was German astronomer, his name is pronounced as above. In the news reels, I've heard Gliese pronounced Glē'sē, Guhˈlēs, and Glē'sā
        --it's be a safer bet to simply call it GL-581 until they can all get on the same page.
    • CheeseburgerBro, on 01/28/2008, -3/+22It's prounounced "Alderaan."
      • thcobbs, on 01/28/2008, -0/+9Well damn it! By the time we get there, there will be nothing left!
      • Tippis, on 01/28/2008, -1/+2Well, at least that would answer the OP's question: unsuspecting, then -- briefly -- very hot, and finally very, very scattered and spacious.
      • cnot3, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1Well then life on it would be pretty tricky, as it was destroyed a long time ago.
    • Spoomeister, on 01/28/2008, -2/+1"Boondoggle", if we create a mission to fly there.
    • icexe, on 01/28/2008, -2/+2I think its either "Glee See" or maybe "Glee-eh See"
    • lmf49, on 01/28/2008, -0/+3Its pronounced like Grease/Greece, but with an L. (Gliese:Grease) Say Guh-Lease. Now say it fast.
  • goerg, on 01/28/2008, -9/+4interesting article, ***** up layout
  • Pastyman, on 01/28/2008, -13/+147Life on planet Gliese 581 C would probably be centered around an armed conflict involving multiple groups who proclaim that their supernatural non existent leader is better their rival's.
    • Static88, on 01/28/2008, -13/+7Warhammer?
      • illt, on 01/28/2008, -2/+19no you moron...religion
        • jordanisj, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1Then we just drop planet busters and rename all their cities after conquering them.
      • jrak, on 01/28/2008, -1/+11On Earth, we call this a "joke".

        Cue the comeback in... 5...
        • moofree, on 01/28/2008, -1/+20On Gliese, we call it a "Kerplorchroschnatz"
      • mergedwarrior, on 01/28/2008, -1/+2Space Jesus vs Space Buddha?
        • slvrbullet87, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1I've got 500 Quadlus on Space buddha, he has about a 200 pound wait advantage and probably has good ground game
          • barbobot, on 01/28/2008, -0/+2Jesus has space magic, and can raise the undead. This might be closer than you think!
          • strictnein, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1What's the conversion from time to mass?
    • hadphild, on 01/28/2008, -3/+4All saying my imaginary friend is better than your friend.
    • digitalarcanum, on 01/28/2008, -13/+5I SEE WHAT YOU DID THAR LOLZ U R ALL SO FUNNEH.
    • Error601, on 01/28/2008, -6/+16Only three posts and the morons come out. Why science on the Internet sucks.
      • Jozer99, on 01/28/2008, -2/+4Only four posts and the trolls come out!
      • SocialPoison, on 01/28/2008, -0/+2The 3rd post was a troll itself...
    • pinchduck, on 01/28/2008, -6/+1Sure, it wouldn't have anything to do with resource scarcity, because they have a magic candy machine that provides for all their needs.
    • provost, on 01/28/2008, -3/+6re: non existant
      atheists are just as ignorant as they believe theists to be because neither opinion can be proven. You can only speculate that you are right. Believing absolutely, and even prostheletizing (because like it or not, that is what you are doing in your statement) in something that is not provable is narrow minded no matter what your belief is.
      • SillyDigger, on 01/28/2008, -6/+3I believe there is a invisible topless chick from 1968 in my closet.... sure I can't see her but whos to say she isnt there? Can you prove that an invisible chick from 1968 ISN'T in my closet? No!

        /FSM
        • GODsPC, on 01/28/2008, -5/+2To many things to say, but they all pretty much come to the same conclusion. Your an idiot
      • courtjester555, on 01/28/2008, -0/+3The idea here is that nobody fights wars for atheism. As a strong/militant atheist, I'm OK with people believing in a god/gods; Deism never hurt anybody either. Organized religion is the issue. And atheism isn't exempt: many Communist countries from the 20th century killed in the name of godlessness.
        • nitsuj, on 01/29/2008, -2/+2"many Communist countries from the 20th century killed in the name of godlessness."

          No they didn't. They killed to remove those that didn't follow the dogma engineered by the ruling leaders. Supernatural gods were replaced with existing human figure heads. Nobody fights wars for atheism or kills in the name of godlessness - it doesn't make sense.
          • courtjester555, on 01/29/2008, -1/+3Yes, they did! They destroyed holy places and killed priests. There was clear persecution of many religious sects under the banner of atheism as part of MLM dogma.

            Also, the countries killed both political and religious dissidents. It's not mutually exclusive.
    • datastorageguy, on 01/29/2008, -1/+1Way to take an enjoyable scientific story and inject your religion bashing into the mix. The militant athiests on Digg are really depressingly annoying.
  • illt, on 01/28/2008, -7/+18it's sad to think we will never know what life would look like on that planet, or any other planet outside our solar system.

    and that intelligent life will never communicate with other intelligent life in the universe.

    unless of course one can somehow travel faster than light.
    • AeonTorpor, on 01/28/2008, -2/+2Just so 'No!' to Event Horizon.
      • nekochan, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1on the other hand, The Monolith is over thataways too.
    • Castellan, on 01/28/2008, -1/+7This assumes we can find any intelligent life on Earth.
      • crzdmn, on 01/28/2008, -2/+1Start scraping the oceans, there are probably some really old microbes that can be classified as "intelligent life" but that about covers it.
    • TheOneTrueGod, on 01/28/2008, -2/+0It seems like an utter waste of space, or like bad design. I mean, if the Universe would not be "completely" inhabitable by Humans.
    • mllawso, on 01/28/2008, -1/+1We may not be able to travel faster than the speed of light. Given enough energy and knowledge, though; I'm sure we could find a way around this -- or even alter the laws of physics within an area to permit faster than light travel (if you believe in the big bang theory, then you know this is possible, albeit probably not practical).
    • EricPeters, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1We just need to find a Mass Relay and we'll be set.
    • juventus1, on 01/29/2008, -0/+1you could look at an ancient civ with a powerful teloscope... if you had the tech-no
  • talonjasra, on 01/28/2008, -2/+5Very bad if you were Superman, the sun's red :(
    • fadetoone, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1Bad in what context? Krypton's star was red, so Superman wouldn't be adversely affected, besides the loss of his super powers. There are some that would consider that a good thing because he would be "normal" and not charged with protecting humanity by himself.
      • CountBlah, on 01/28/2008, -0/+4But he won't have anything else to do, the man doesn't have hobbies.
    • DBLaise, on 01/30/2008, -0/+0I haven't seen those movies in quite a while but I do remember something about some kind of red light taking Superman's powers away. Fanboys correct me if I am wrong...
  • Lumbeekid06, on 01/28/2008, -0/+5sounds German in my head...
    • cnot3, on 01/28/2008, -0/+2Maybe its that planet from Star Trek with all the Nazis on it.
  • djdavey, on 01/28/2008, -7/+2We are not alone...
    http://www.floort.com/?fid=118&t=We're%20Not%20Al ...
  • ZincSaucier, on 01/28/2008, -1/+15us guys from under the red sun are like "ohh, ohh, ohhh"
    • dsendecki, on 01/28/2008, -0/+9So what is the deal with people from under the orange sun? They're all... Right? Am I right?
  • jordanisj, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1Hmmm... start with an orbital habitat stationkeeping a little behind the terminator, use that to build some solar shades... that's not much remodeling work, for a planet.
    • mllawso, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1Its shades could even be photovoltaic: add a method to 'beam' the energy back to the surface and a large chunk of the colony's power needs are covered.
  • Fallout911, on 01/28/2008, -0/+12Now all we need is ancient prothean technology and and a good ship and we'll be there in a jiffy.
    • craighoxton, on 01/28/2008, -1/+4...but would spend hours looking around for ore to prospect 'cos we need credits to buy tricked-out Spectre gear...
  • sonnybobiche, on 01/28/2008, -0/+14Just FYI, the star is Gliese 581. The planet is the third planet in that system, so it's referred to as Gliese 581 C, per convention.
  • LiquidCure, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1Alright guys, I think it's safe to say that it's time to start building an Event Horizon.
    • nbcaffeine, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1What about the Von Braun?
    • TheOneTrueGod, on 01/28/2008, -0/+0You are all lame. What you need is the "Comet".
    • strictnein, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1So I can get hung by my skin over a table and disemboweled. Or rip out my own eyes? I saw what happened the first time they tried that! No thanks!
    • cawpin, on 01/28/2008, -2/+1Build a infinitely small representative point? Cool, go for it.
  • bentman78, on 01/28/2008, -0/+2It would be hard to say. Remember that our own planet has undergone radical environmental and climatic changes throughout it's billions of years history. During the oxygen rich and steamy climate of most of the dinosaurs the earth was a much different place than now (with continental shifting aside). There are many things that can contribute to a climate including the exterristral factors such as asteroids. It would be great if we could see what lives or doesn't live on that planet, but I'll be long gone before that happens :(.
  • BrentyD, on 01/28/2008, -18/+4omg, has digg's user group changed to ***** trekkies
    • MacEnvy, on 01/28/2008, -1/+4Digg started out with a lot of Trekkers. It's non-tech folks like you who have invaded, not us geeks. And we welcomed you here - treat us well or we'll DDOS you.
      • CountBlah, on 01/28/2008, -0/+2Be careful with using Trekker instead of Trekkies, you are tempting fate. Also Roddenberry said that Trekkies is the true term since he invented it.
        • MacEnvy, on 01/28/2008, -0/+2Yeah, I know, but I personally prefer Trekkers. Trekkies sounds like a breakfast cereal or something. To each his own.
        • BrentyD, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1suprised they havent made a breakfast cereal yet
    • BrentyD, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1ur the first person to call me a non geek!!! i came to digg because of the tech news. But to say i have invaded? I have as much right to access this website as you do, AND I have been a digg user for over 9 months now-not a short time on the internet
  • degron, on 01/28/2008, -0/+10So, basically life would suck on Gliese 581 C?
    • XxtraLarGe, on 01/28/2008, -2/+1No, basically there wouldn't be any life on Gliese 581 C, at least any that we'd recognize. AFAIK most cellular structures break down at those temperatures.
      • Ne007, on 01/29/2008, -0/+1I meant that like sucks just as much here as it would there....lmfao!
    • Ne007, on 01/29/2008, -0/+1Yes, it is most similar to Earth!
  • moofree, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1641 year ping times would be killer to life on this planet.
    • JibberGeorge, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1Just think of all the firsts..... the first intergalactic teabag would be an accomplishment I'd be proud to place an award on my wall for.
      • cawpin, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1That would be an acceptable "First!" post.
  • slapded, on 01/28/2008, -0/+19steve jobs said i hate to read. where are the pics
  • antych, on 01/28/2008, -1/+5What... No pictures?
  • WorkingDead, on 01/28/2008, -0/+3Everyone that has ever lived and everything that has ever been done will have been for nothing if we cant get our ***** together and start exploring the rest of the galaxy.
  • atomiku, on 01/28/2008, -2/+1No pics?
  • jonspraggins, on 01/28/2008, -0/+8"I don't want to go to Neptune. I'll be cold ... and heavy!"
    - Farnsworth
  • mechman, on 01/28/2008, -0/+0Now, how about erythemal ultraviolet ...
  • SpencerMc, on 01/28/2008, -0/+9For the other Americans who, like me, have extremely little concept of relative Celsius and Fahrenheit temperatures, 95 C is roughly 205 F. Sooo...don't forget to bring one of those little handheld fans.
  • FearFactory, on 01/28/2008, -0/+3I'm enjoying my stay here on Teeagak thank you very much!
  • Zaggynl, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1Hot.
  • petrodollar, on 01/28/2008, -1/+1A simple pair of split crotch panties would be virtually priceless.
  • ipodwheels, on 01/28/2008, -1/+6Can't wait for the USS Enterprise to be done so I can visit this planet. At least its under construction....
    • Toallpointswest, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1It has to be asked, how long would it take the Enterprise to get there at warp speed? Anyone?
      • strictnein, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1Warp 1? How many light years is it?
      • lmf49, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1from the Warp Speed Calculator Widget
        Warp 1 = 20.4years
        Warp 2 = 2.02y
        warp 3=.52y,
        Warp 4 = .2 years,
        warp 5 = .1years,
        warp 6 = .05y,
        warp 7= .03,
        warp 8=.02y,
        warp 9 = .01y (3.65days)
        Also warp 9.9 = 3029.26 km/s
        All values in TNG warp Factors.
    • groovychk, on 01/28/2008, -0/+2LY = 5,878,625,373,183.61 statute miles
      Gliese 581 = 20.4 from earth

      Earth to Gliese 581 = 119,923,957,612,945.644 miles or 119.9 trillion miles
      Just saw a Voyager rerun where Tom Paris was telling someone that warp 9.9 was around 4 billion miles per second
      119 trillion divided by 4 billion = 29981 seconds
      29981 divided by 3600 seconds in an hour = 8.328 hours


      • CountBlah, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1But they aren't supposed to go that fast except under certain conditions, it damages the fabric of space/time. At least it was in one episode of TNG, although they ignored it completely.
        • lmf49, on 01/28/2008, -0/+2AL Gore should have been one of those people whom they re animated from the 20th century in those Liquid Nitrogen coffins so that he could fight Galactic Warming/ Galactic Warp Pollution
  • marffa, on 01/28/2008, -2/+1
    A simple pair of split crotch panties would be virtually priceless.
    • petrodollar, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1We must remember that Algon is over 75,000 miles wide. The probes come down to this area here and we're really only getting signals from a radius of only thirty or forty miles around the probe. Split-crotch panties, or indeed any items of what we scientists call, 'Sexy Underwear' or 'Erotic Lingerie' may be much more plentiful on other parts of the planet.
  • opticsnake, on 01/28/2008, -2/+2Would this possibly Xenu's home planet?
  • Pete7872, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1What makes these scientists so sure that life on that planet has to be like life on this planet..They talked about photosynthesis and the need for specific colors of the light spectrum that allow for that...If there was extra terrestrial life out there i would assume it would be pretty different then life on earth, so would it be wrong to think that plants too would produce energy in a different way, maybe adapting to a different spectrum of light for photosynthesis..that is if those "plants" even use photosynthesis for energy production.
    • provost, on 01/28/2008, -0/+3because they have to think inside the box to a degree before they can gradually move outside to see other reasonable possibilities. The idea is that you start with what you know and learn more from there just like any other subject.
      You can't start with a wild presumption and build on it because you will quickly roadblock yourself with the limits of your own imagination. It is always, always safest to play within your knowledge boundries before you move out if you want to be reasonable.
      • drRPspambot, on 01/28/2008, -0/+0I don't know if that's a wild presumption... the theory of evolution dictates that life would adapt to the conditions it is "raised" in. More efficient organisms, that used a more prevalent section of the EM spectrum as an energy source, would outperform any Earth-similar lifeforms.
  • yathosho, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1what people tend to forget are bacteria, viruses and other micro-organisms.if life on gliese is possible, that means there are most likely micro-organisms on that planet already. how many thousand years would it take to become immune to all these? perhaps the only thing i learnt out of "war of the worlds" ;)
    • elementop, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1You are probably already immune.

      How many terrestrial diseases are contagious across species? Yes, there's swine flu/avian flu, rabies, and a handful of others, but can a human catch feline leukemia? Can you give your pet lizard a cold? Have you ever caught ick from your goldfish? While there are exceptions, in general, diseases are tied to a specific species or sometimes a small group of related species. If the odds of catching a disease from a terrestrial host of another species are pretty slim, I would expect the odds of catching a disease from an alien microbe to be remote indeed.

      "War of the Worlds" and "The Andromeda Strain" were cools works of fiction, but that's all they are -- fiction.
      • yathosho, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1well, it perhaps depends on WHY we are immune to these.. might be as well a result of evolution. i guess another argument about my initial post might be, that science would be so advanced by the time we can colonize remote planets. i certainly hope so, though at the moment it's kinda sarcastic what mankind achieved in technology, whereas a lot of medical problems are still far from being solved.
  • goldwish, on 01/28/2008, -0/+2
    For the other Americans who, like me, have extremely little concept of relative Celsius and Fahrenheit temperatures, 95 C is roughly 205 F. Sooo...don't forget to bring one of those little handheld fans.
  • Spoomeister, on 01/28/2008, -0/+5It would be cold outside, with no kind of atmosphere. Actually, we'd be all alone, more or less. Pretty sure we'd want to fly far away from there...

    Seriously, from the article it sounds like one would need to bring a metric phuck-ton of sunblock and vitamin D pills.
    • johnn11238, on 01/28/2008, -0/+2Read more carefully: Surface temps are 95 C.
      That's not cold, by the way.
      And "all alone"? You would be out in space looking for...a danceclub? Social center? Hip locals?
  • goldwish, on 01/28/2008, -1/+1
    what people tend to forget are bacteria, viruses and other micro-organisms.if life on gliese is possible, that means there are most likely micro-organisms on that planet already. how many thousand years would it take to become immune to all these? perhaps the only thing i learnt out of "war of the worlds" ;)
    • CountBlah, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1Most likely it wouldn't bother us since it evolved on a different planet. A virus has a hard time jumping species and our DNA is fairly similar, imagine how hard it would be to jump to something without DNA or DNA that is vastly different.
  • frenchi, on 01/28/2008, -0/+6I think I'm going crazy, I seem to read every thing twice here.
    • silverchrysalis, on 01/29/2008, -0/+1I think I'm going crazy, I seem to read every thing twice here.
  • skyshock1, on 01/28/2008, -0/+3WTF is going on w/ the comments?
  • ZincSaucier, on 01/28/2008, -0/+0why don't we ask the gleisians? or as neighboring aliens call them, the gliese balls.
  • omega6, on 01/28/2008, -0/+6I think I'm going crazy, I seem to read every thing twice here. ;)
  • dildoolielly, on 01/28/2008, -6/+1I am always curious what makes Amerikans think they are "intelligent" life.

    • groovychk, on 01/28/2008, -2/+4Maybe because some of us can spell American correctly?
    • CountBlah, on 01/28/2008, -1/+3Well we all can't be as smart as Mr. Dildo here and besides recent events we have done some pretty impressive stuff. Going to the Moon for one. Not that it matters, FUK AMERIKKKA MAN! LOLOLOL! But have fun trying to be "clever", look I can use " " too.

      Also don't you know? Humans are third in line.

      1. White Mice
      2. Dolphins
      3. Humans
  • myass666mlong, on 01/28/2008, -2/+0wow the real vulcan planet
  • LightPhoenix, on 01/28/2008, -0/+2Well, I was hoping that there might be some comments on theoretical biochemistry, or at least some response as to the assumption that life on this planet would mimic life here. I mean, chlorophyll probably would not exist on another planet barring some kind of panspermia - so the assumption that plants would need blue/red light is specious. Heck, life there would probably evolve to use what light is abundant.
    • CountBlah, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1There was a special on Science Channel that dealt with a planet like this. Instead of plants, there were creatures that resembles trees that would move in order to absorb more light.
  • CosmicSombrero, on 01/28/2008, -1/+0For a better-written (...and spelled...) exploration of the habitability of the Gliese 581 system, see http://lanl.arxiv.org/pdf/0709.1476

    Astronomy and Astrophysics preprint, appeared in the journal on Jan 22)
  • tensvb, on 01/28/2008, -0/+1Xenu knows
  • TCFrancis, on 01/28/2008, -0/+11996 called, they want their website back.
  • iainc, on 01/28/2008, -0/+2Will there be a Starbucks?
  • s0ldad0, on 01/29/2008, -1/+0Did yomeone say Planet Giselle? **possibly NSFW**
    Possible Alien from Planet Giselle...
    http://photos22.flickr.com/34571058_e879df0f05.jpg
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.