Don't know if this is the right forum to be posting this in - but anyways.....
A team of European astronomers has found a planet outside our solar system that is the most Earth-like ever discovered. Those who spotted it say it could be covered in water, a necessary ingredient for life.
The planet, detected using a telescope in Chile, has a mass about five times that of the Earth. It is 14 times closer to its star than the Earth is to the sun. But that star - Gliese 581 - is what is known as a red dwarf, and is smaller, colder and 50 times fainter than our sun.
This means the planet appears to lie in what astronomers call the Goldilocks zone - not too hot, not too cold for life that depends on water, rather than ice. A number of teams, including one in Canada, have been hunting for a planet that is capable of sustaining life, one that would change our view of the universe and mean that we are not alone.http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070424.whabitat-planet0424/BNStory/Science/home
