New World in Hab Zone

[Wanderlust]

HD85512b has trumped Gliese 581 as the most potentially Earthlike world. This new world orbits a k type star in its habitable zone, which makes it the first terrestrial planet discovered in the habitable zone of a sunlike star. K types are just under the sun in spectral type, so the hab zone is about where Venus is in our system. This is a better find than Gl581 because it is far enough away from its sun to not be tidally locked to its star and it is less massive at around 3 Earth masses. The sun is also similar to ours, unlike GL581 which is a weak red dwarf. It is most likely terrestrial planet .

The star is about 5.6 billion years old, which is about a billion years older than our star. Plenty of time for life to evolve. Its 36 lightyears away in the constellation libra.

New Planet May Be Among Most Earthlike

(http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/08/110830-new-planet-found-most-earthlike-life-clouds-water-space-science/)Some facts about the system

Star HD 85512
Constellation Libra
Right ascension (α) 09h 51m 07.1s
Declination (δ) −43° 30′ 10″
Apparent magnitude (mV) 7.66
Distance 20.3 ± 0.3[1] ly
(6.2 ± 0.1[2] pc)
Spectral type K5 V
Semimajor axis (a) 0.26 ± 0.005[2] AU
Eccentricity (e) 0.11 ± 0.1[2]
Orbital period (P) 58.43 ± 0.13[2] d
Orbital speed (υ) 9:4913 ± 0.0038 km/s
Minimum mass (m sin i) 3.6 ± 0.5 M⊕
Temperature (T) 298[3] K

[visualizer]

Excitement!!! :nlol: I hope more studies continue after this. In fact, I EXPECT more!