제목

Anybody Out There?

글쓴이

dosul

날짜

2009.07.15 17:30

hello, all viewers!

this is concerned on the science of universe, take a reference on your study for understanding our universe.

========================================================================

Anybody Out There?

The discovery of a new world: Scientists think they may have found a planet that could support life, but it's located in a solar system far, far away.

LLOYD: If you look up at the stars, do you ever find yourself asking: Is there anybody out there? In science fiction books and movies, characters visit other planets all the time. And while scientists have been searching the skies, they've had no luck finding worlds with the right conditions to support life. But as Phil Black explains, the search may have finally paid off.

PHIL BLACK, CNN REPORTER: It's a solar system far, far away that astronomers believe may answer one of the universe's great questions: Are we alone? This new planet is more like Earth than anything previously discovered. It's orbiting a distant sun, a red dwarf star, smaller and cooler than our own.

The new planet is very close to its star -- one orbit takes just 13 days, compared to 365 days for Earth. Scientist's estimate the surface temperature ranges between zero and 40 degrees Celsius. That means it's likely there is water, and water could mean life as we know it.

About 200 planets have been discovered, but they're all too close or too far from their suns, or too gassy to support life. Astronomer Robert Massey says this one looks just right.

ROBERT MASSEY, ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY: The other big difference between this planet and others we have seen in the past, is it is in what we call the habitable zone. It's the right distance from the star, if you like the Goldilocks zone where it's not too hot, it's not too cold. It's the right temperature for liquid water and that's really the first object we have found like this.

BLACK: This planet is 20 light years away. Scientists say that's reasonably close when you're talking about the universe. But for earthlings the distance is staggering -- 120 million million miles, or 120 with 12 zeroes after it. It's so far away the astronomers who discovered it working out of this observatory in Chile haven't seen it. There's no telescope strong enough. Instead they studied the behavior of its sun.

STEVE MARAN, ASTRONOMER: The European Southern Observatory where this work was done, they have a new extremely powerful instrument that's able to detect a wobble in a star that's only about six miles an hour.

BLACK: Impressive technology, but not enough for humans to boldly go and visit their new sister planet anytime soon. Phil Black, CNN, London.