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Articles: "We're Trying to Find a Second Earth"

Posted by Admin on Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - 10:09 PM

For the first time, European scientists have discovered another habitable planet. DW-WORLD.DE talked with one of the discoverers, Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory.

<i class="caption">Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Does life already exist on Gliese 581 C?

DW-WORLD.DE: How did you discover the planet? Was it a coincidence?

Stephane Udry: No, of course not. We're working on a complete research project to discover such planets. We're tracking several thousand stars to get hints about planets from them. Our planet circles around a home star. We're mainly interested in the traveling speed of such stars, because it helps us to calculate the existence of a planet.

What's the name of the planet?

We don't name them, because there are too many of them. We're using the name of the home star and add a letter that references the date of discovery. The first planet that's discovered around a star gets a "B," the second a "C." The new planet is called Gliese 581 C, because it's the second that we've discovered near the star Gliese 581.

What kind of conditions exist on Gliese 581 C?

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For the first time, European scientists have discovered another habitable planet. DW-WORLD.DE talked with o­ne of the discoverers, Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory.

For the first time, European scientists have discovered another habitable planet. DW-WORLD.DE talked with one of the discoverers, Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory.