Three potentially habitable worlds found around nearby ultracool dwarf star

[Pradeep (Pleiadian)]

http://goo.gl/u8MC13

Amazing news

[bojan]

http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=35524
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/promisin...ool-dwarf-star

[AussieTrooper (Ben)]

The best thing here is the dimness and closeness of the star. This gives us a good chance to actually get a half decent direct observation of it one day. Not much chance right now, but the day will come.

[bojan]

Don't forget that the star is dimmer.. but so are the planets, in the same proportion (they reflect light). And they are pretty close to the star.. so the prospect of direct (optical) observation for this particular system may be even worse than for a sun-like star.

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

its hard to fathom orbiting the star every few days.
I guess its kind of like a toasty Jupiter and being on Io or Europa.

[Renato1 (Renato)]

Wouldn't these planets be tidally locked to the star?

That's always been the main argument against life on planets around red dwarf stars - their habitable zone is where the planet would be tidally locked.

So two these planets get far more radiation than the earth. And if tidally locked would be ultra hot on one side, and very cold on the other. I suppose life could grow at the circumference between the two sides.
Regards,
Renato

[N1 (Mirko)]

Originally Posted by Renato1

Wouldn't these planets be tidally locked to the star?

That's always been the main argument against life on planets around red dwarf stars - their habitable zone is where the planet would be tidally locked.

So two these planets get far more radiation than the earth. And if tidally locked would be ultra hot on one side, and very cold on the other. I suppose life could grow at the circumference between the two sides.
Regards,
Renato

Yep, and that species would be called The Terminators

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

Originally Posted by N1

Yep, and that species would be called The Terminators

this deserves a