Friday, October 01, 2010

Goldilocks planet

And once again we see the term Goldilocks planet pop up in the news with the discovery of Gliese 581g; it's right in the "habitable zone" not too hot, not too cold, but just right to support life.


[Sigh] I did this back in October and April of 2007. There's no such thing as a habitable zone; there are simply conditions in which life as we know it may have an opportunity to appear. So you need water in liquid form and energy - hey how about Europa where it's postulated that under the ice crust is a liquid ocean and energy can come from volcanic type activity. Is that in the "habitable zone" nope it's orbiting Jupiter.


I mean sure look for Earth-like planets just don't use out-dated terminology to describe them.

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