POTENTIALLY HABITABLE PLANET FOUND

Seth Borenstein of the Associated Press reports this morning that astronomers have announced discovery of a planet outside our solar system that is potentially habitable, with Earth-like temperatures. The planet, located about 120 trillion miles away is about the right size and may have water.

Although much is still unkown about the planet, it is significant that it orbits a "red dwarf" star. These are much dimmer than our sun and put out much less energy. But if the planet is in the right location the dwarf could still provide what is necessary to support life. The find opens up a new area in the search for life in the universe. Not much attention has been paid to dwarf stars to this point. Who wants to buy some real estate on planet 581c? It's only 20.5 light years away!

Read the full article at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070425/ap_on_sc/habitable_planet_14

AP Drawing