This is a thread about "Earth 2", also called "Gliza", technically Gliese 581c. It is a planet ten lightyears away from Earth and is orbiting a red dwarf star. It's old news, but I still think it's worth discussing.

The exciting thing about it is it is the most earthlike planet found to date. It has temperatures ranging from 32 to 104 degrees F and liquid water. One can speculate that if this is accurate information, it has all the conditions of a second Earth; a fully inhabitable planet.

However, some planetologists calculate that it is impossible for a planet to remain inhabitable after its orbit star has become a red dwarf - that it would cause all water to evaporate and all surface matter to become irradiated.

But if the initial astronomers were right, and this is Earth 2, it's pretty cool. Imagine what kinds of life could be there.

 

Whoever ends up owning the mineral rights is gonna be laughing because all their going to do is rape the shit out of it. Just like they are doing here.

 

A correction: it is 20.5 lightyears away, and there is another planet, Gliese 581d which is colder but thought to be inhabitable in the same star's orbit.

And sure, that is if there are no indigenous populations to fend off Earth invaders.

 

It's definitely cool, but the first real step we'd need to overcome as a race of explorers is the whole sublight speeds thing. Unless we can get a whole bunch of volunteers to go hang out in cryo freeze for a few decades (centuries?), Gliese remains out of our grasp.

 

Not to mention that chryo is yet another technology that has not been able to live up to its anticipated potential. However, very promising research now suggests that chryo-stasis may be an idea whose time has passed. What's more, this method of suspended animation could have dozens of medical applications. I saw a show about future tech that thoroughly researched this phenomenon, and more recently the parameters have been expanded with no amplified adverse effects on test rats. Awesome stuff.