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Astronomers believe mysterious signals - previously dismissed as stellar bursts - are coming from an Earth-like planet. The Gliese 581d planet has conditions that could support life, and is likely to be a rocky world, twice the size of Earth. Signals from the planet were initially discovered in 2010, but last year dismissed as noise from distant stars.

Explanation: Is Earth the only known world that can support life? In an effort to find life-habitable worlds outside our Solar System, stars similar to our Sun are being monitored for slight light decreases that indicate eclipsing planets. Many previously-unknown planets are being found, including over 700 worlds recently uncovered by NASA's Kepler satellite. Depicted above in artist's illustrations are twelve extrasolar planets that orbit in the habitable zones of their parent stars. These exoplanets have the right temperature for water to be a liquid on their surfaces, and so water-based life on Earth might be able to survive on...

New data suggest the confirmation of the exoplanet Gliese 581g and the best candidate so far of a potential habitable exoplanet. The nearby star Gliese 581 is well known for having four planets with the outermost planet, Gliese 581d, already suspected habitable. This will be the first time evidence for any two potential habitable exoplanets orbiting the same star. Gliese 581g will be included, together with Gliese 667Cc, Kepler-22b, HD85512, and Gliese 581d, in the Habitable Exoplanets Catalog of the PHL @ UPR Arecibo as the best five objects of interest for Earth-like exoplanets. Doubts about the existence of Gliese...

An astronomer picked up a mysterious pulse of light coming from the direction of the newly discovered Earth-like planet almost two years ago, it has emerged. Dr Ragbir Bhathal, a scientist at the University of Western Sydney, picked up the odd signal in December 2008, long before it was announced that the star Gliese 581 has habitable planets in orbit around it. Dr Bhathal had been sweeping the skies when he discovered a 'suspicious' signal from an area of the galaxy that holds the newly-discovered Gliese 581g. The remarkable coincidence adds another layer of mystery to the announcement last night...

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.

PITY the poor inhabitants of Gliese 581d; some day in 20 years' time, the planet -- which was discovered in 2007 and is theoretically inhabitable (a bit like Los Angeles) -- is going to be hit by a tsunami of spam. Our pollies have been among eager earthlings who've signed up at HelloFromEarth.net to have a message beamed at the planet. Science Minister Kim Carr did his bit to set the tone with this sentiment: "Hello from Australia on the planet we call Earth. These messages express our people's dreams for the future. We want to share these dreams with...

When ET phoned home in 1982, a whole generation dreamed of finding extra-terrestrial life. One inspired moviegoer was Australia’s eccentric science minister Kim Carr. Today he launched a bizarre scheme encouraging citizens to send messages into outer space with the hope of discovering other beings. And, by logging on to a website, hundreds have already sent missives to Gliese 581d, the only know planet that - since it resembles Earth – could support life. Some have asked aliens to help find lost socks, while others invited non-earthlings from planet Gliese 581d over for a cup of tea. In what is...

Messages from Earth will be sent into space as part of National Science Week. People can visit the Hello From Earth website to post text-like message that will be transmitted to Gliese 581d - the nearest earth-like planet outside our solar system. Gliese 581d was discovered in April 2007. It is eight times the size of Earth and 20 light years away. The project is already proving popular, with the website receiving 26,000 hits in the first five minutes - crashing the system for a short time. The messages will be sent from the Canberra Deep Space Complex at Tidbinbilla....