ould you like to have a birthday party every 13 days? Then planet 581c is the place for you! Astronomers recently announced the discovery of the planet, which orbits the star Gliese 581 every 13 days. (You can't see the star with a standard telescope. If you happen to have your own high-tech observatory, however, the star is part of the constellation Libra.)

Scientists were startled, but not because how quickly 581c revolves around its star. The planet is the most Earthlike planet to be discovered. That's because 581c's mass is just five times that of Earth's. Its diameter is roughly 1.5 times Earth's.

Based on its size and distance from its star, scientists suspect the surface of 581c is rock or rock and ice. The planet was spotted in what scientists call the "Goldilocks Zone" because conditions are "just right" for life. The temperature on the planet is thought to be between 32 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit. That means that there could be liquid water on the planet. And where

Think About It! Some scientists say the only way that people could travel to such a faraway planet would be on a large spacecraft in which several families lived on the craft for generations. Would you travel on such a ship? What might the journey be like?

there's water, scientists say, there could be life. "Liquid water is critical to life as we know it," said Xavier Delfosse, one of the astronomers on the discovery team. "This planet will most probably be a very important target of the future of space missions dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life. On the treasure map of the Universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X," said Delfosse.

Though Gliese is one of the 100 closest stars to Earth, don't send out your birthday party invitations just yet. The planet is 20.5 light-years (about 120 trillion miles) away. (One light-year equals 5.9 trillion miles.) And you can't ask Mom and Dad to fire up the rocket just yet. The fastest man-made spacecraft to date (two Helios probes) only reached top speeds of 150,000 miles per hour. At that rate, it would take more than two thousand years to get to 581c!





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