Habitable Planet Found!

This article can be found at http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2010/09/30/planet_found_in_habitable_zone/

    This should be front page news on every newspaper. It’s not. Instead, the Boston Globe’s front page headline reads “Victim’s home may hold clues in deadly shootings.” New York Times, “Drilling Plans Off Cuba Stir Fears of Impact on Gulf.” In the Los Angeles Times, it can be found under the section “Odd News.” Is science so far out of this country’s collective interest that the discovery of the closest thing to Earth we’ve ever found is not big news? Not only is it big news, it’s optimistic news – news that makes you feel good rather than the dark stories of violence, corruption and tragedy that take up a majority of our newspaper space.
    The star: Gliese 581. The red dwarf, three times smaller than our Sun and much less bright, is right next door to us in our galactic neighborhood, only 20 light-years away. The star has been found to hold six planets—the one announced yesterday (the subject of this story) lies in the habitable zone, the “Goldilocks Zone,” not too hot and not too cold but just right. The planet, Gliese 581 g, is the first exoplanet ever to be found in this zone. It’s conditions are ideal for water and there are even places where it would be “shirt-sleeve weather,” says scientists.
    The article sticks to the facts—the right thing to do for an exciting story such as this one. It starts with the big news, “Astronomers say they have for the first time spotted a planet beyond our own in…the Goldilocks zone for life,” and moves quickly through the science with short paragraphs. Borenstein focuses on what the astronomers say, so the reader hears it from the source. He jumps from one major astronomer’s quote of excitement and optimism to another. He, very smartly, stays away from wild speculation, saying “[e]ven a simple single-cell bacteria or the equivalent of shower mold would shake perceptions about the uniqueness of life on Earth,” and “[t]here are still many unanswered questions about this strange planet…[i]t is unknown whether water exists on the planet and what kind of atmosphere it has.” The fact that an Earth-like planet like this has been found with our current level of technology, and before Kepler has even really begun racking in data on Earth-like planets, is very encouraging—hopefully there are many more to come in the next few years.