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If it seems like a new extrasolar planet is discovered every week these days, that's because there is. In fact, the rate is actually faster than one per week -- 70 have been discovered thus far this year alone, bringing the overall tally of confirmed exoplanets at 494. At that pace we very well might hit exoplanet number 500 before the end of this month... The first definitive exoplanet was confirmed in 1992, and it's taken us almost two decades to cross the 500 threshold. But given the drastic uptick in discoveries and the increased scientific emphasis on exoplanet discovery,...

A team of scientists led by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) investigated the habitability of the planetary system Gliese 581 in the constellation of Libra, 20 light-years away. With the help of a model for the evolution of Earth-like planets coupled with a climate model they were able to demonstrate habitable conditions on the planet Gl 581d, while its smaller brother, Gl 581c, has to be classified uninhabitable. This contradicts the findings of another research team in April of this year that announced Gl 581c to be the first habitable planet outside our solar system.

Trekkies are drooling. Battlestar Galactica fans are blogging. But back in the real world, time's a-wasting. Fools, the news just broke -- we've found the first habitable planet outside our own solar system. In a late-breaking flash thus far seen only by us night owls, the Associated Press reported last night that the European Southern Observatory's telescope in La Silla, Chile, has identified a planet circling the red dwarf star Gliese 581 as capable of supporting life. Ever the romantics, scientists have named the planet "581 c" -- or affectionately, just "c" -- and by all indications, it's a lovely...

Two months after astronomers discovered an extrasolar planet capable of supporting life, another team has questioned that finding and forwarded its own candidate for a second Earth--although neither world figures to become a prime vacation destination. Last April, a Swiss team announced that it had found a rocky planet about five times as massive as and 1.5 times larger in diameter than Earth (Science, 27 April, p. 528: ). The object, named Gliese 581c, orbits a red dwarf star in the constellation Libra about 20 light-years away. Based on their calculations, the scientists found that the planet rests near the...

« Kepler’s dust cover has now been jettisoned, meaning the search for extrasolar ‘Earths’ is not long from commencing. The cover stayed in place for so long because the spacecraft’s photometer had to make measurements of electronic noise that will later have to be removed from the science data. Mission engineers will now continue with the calibration process for several weeks using images of actual stars. Our debates over the ‘rare Earth’ hypothesis will be getting firm data in short order because of Kepler. Three years from now, having had time to detect terrestrial-class planets in the habitable zone...

« We’ve already speculated here that if the Kepler mission finds few Earth-like planets in the course of its investigations, the belief that life is rare will grow. But let’s be optimists and speculate on the reverse: What if Kepler pulls in dozens, even hundreds, of Earth-sized planets in the habitable zones of their respective stars? In that case, the effort to push on to study the atmospheres of such planets would receive a major boost, aiding the drive to launch a terrestrial planet hunter with serious spectroscopic capabilities some time in the next decade.Budget problems? Let’s fold Darwin...

WASHINGTON - For the first time astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is potentially habitable, with Earth-like temperatures, a find researchers described Tuesday as a big step in the search for "life in the universe." The planet is just the right size, might have water in liquid form, and in galactic terms is relatively nearby at 120 trillion miles away. But the star it closely orbits, known as a "red dwarf," is much smaller, dimmer and cooler than our sun. There's still a lot that is unknown about the new planet, which could be deemed inhospitable...