Wow! It’s fun and amazing when things line up like this. According to IO9, astronomers have confirmed that there are two exoplanets that may be habitable, which will come in handy when the human race begins looking for new planets to colonize. Officially, these planets are known as Gliese 581 g and c, which orbit a star system located roughly 20 light years from Earth.
Can you say coincidence? By now, just about everyone who reads my blog knows that myself and a group of writers are hard at work producing an anthology about the colonization of a distant world in the not-too-distant future. Well guess where it’s set? Gliese 581-freaking-g! That’s where! Yes, in the course of researching realistic locations for our story, Mr. Goran Zidar suggested we use this star system seeing as how it is known to have a system of planets.
After doing our due diligence, we learned that two planets are deemed habitable by human standards, Gliese 581 g and c. And of the two, g is the prime candidate for settlement, being the closest in mass, surface temperature and gravity to Earth. Yes, with a little terraforming, this planet could be hosting a settled population withing a few generations.
I love it when fiction and real life come together like this! Granted, this “news” isn’t exactly new. In fact, Gliese has been in on astronomers radar for quite some time, and has been dubbed “Zarmina” by scientists. But it’s new to us. And frankly, I like our choice of name better. Yeah, Yuva sounds so much more palatable than Zarmina, doesn’t it? I think so…
I’m feeling a bit like nostradamus right now
Sitting comfortably proud of my foresight and wisdom.. hehehe. Glad to see science has caught up with fiction on this one.
There you are! I’ve been looking to get your attention over at Goodreads. How’s the summer treating you?
I’m in Australia, and winter has come.
I haven’t been doing much online these past few weeks. Been really busy at work and just haven’t had a chance to keep on top of my projects. I’ll pop on over to Goodreads and see what I’ve missed.
Oh yeah, forgot about that equatorial thing. What’s winter like down under? Rainy or snowy?
We don’t get much snow in Australia, no real mountains and for the past decade or so we didn’t get much in the way of rain either but this year that changed. We’ve had a lot of rain – with more on the way (hopefully since our main dam was down to just 23% capacity 18 months ago).
What is the gravity of this planet? I gather it has twice the mass, so can humans actually withstand that?
Not without some serious enhancement, which is precisely what our group had to tackle. However, estimates seem to range from 1.5 to 3.1, which runs that gambit from tough but adaptable to requiring exoskeletons or genetic enhancements.
I don’t think it will be hosting a settled population within a few generations. Not at 20 light years distance from us. I agree that science will make great strides in the next 100 years, but not quite that great.
Still good news though.
I meant within a few generations of ships being able to reach it, at which point it would take several generations to terraform the planet to meet human needs.
Fair enough. My mistake.
SciFi is best when it is plausible…
Hey Matt! To boldly go!
I just finished reading Farmer in the Sky by Heinlein and the entire time I kept thinking about our little anthology. I almost feel like it should be mandatory reading here (although I do not doubt you’ve already read it). It wasn’t all excitement and action, but it was smartly written and easy to read and had good science woven in with the fiction.