Planet Discovered Outside Solar System

A team of astronomers discovered an Earth-like planet that may be habitable outside the solar system for the first time.

A planet "similar to Earth," that may be habitable, was discovered outside the solar system by a team of astronomers for the first time, according to a study which will be published in the magazine Astronomy and Astrophysics. 

The exoplanet or extrasolar planet that circles the star Gliese 581 (G1 681), 20.5 light years away from Earth, is the first of about 200 known planets that have "hard or liquid surface similar to Earth's," say the scientists, and it is the lightest one among them. 

Therefore, it possesses the qualities that allow us to imagine the existence of possible life away from Earth, states the report released by national scientific research centre CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique), whose three laboratories participated in the discovery alongside the experts from the Geneva Observatorium and Astronomy Centre in Lisbon. 

The average temperature of this "super-Earth lies between zero and 40 degrees Celsius, and water would thus be liquid," claims research author Stephane Udry (Geneva).

"Moreover," he adds, "its radius should be only 1.5 times the Earth’s radius, and models predict that the planet should be either rocky – like our Earth – or covered with oceans." 

The gravity on the surface is 2.2 times bigger than on the Earth surface and its mass is very small. 

The planet that was discovered with the Harps 3.6 m telescope from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in La Silla, Chile, circles the star Gliese 581 in 13 days and the distance between the two is 14 times smaller than between Earth and the Sun.