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As earthbound scientists and astronomers continue their search for habitable planets throughout the galaxy, they found what they think could be a possible waterworld.  The planet called Gliese 581 C is located outside of our solar system at about 20.5 light-years away.  A light-year is the distance traveled by light in one year, exactly 9,460,730,472,580.8 kilometers away.  It also is the smallest extrasolar planet (or exoplanet) discovered so far.

The planet orbits about 15 times closer to its star than the Earth is to the Sun giving it a “year” of only 13 days.  The star it orbits is a red dwarf star called Gliese 581 which is about 50 times dimmer than the Sun and much cooler as well.  Gliese 581 C’s proximity to its parent red dwarf star brings it within the habitable zone - an area that is neither too hot nor too cold thus allowing water to exist in a liquid state.  Any closer and all the water evaporates, any farther and the water freezes.

The planet is about 5 times larger than the our home planet and is a part of a now three-planet system as it orbits the star Gliese 581.  One of the planets is a 15 Earth-mass “hot Jupiter” gas planet and the other is an 8 Earth-mass planet discovered at around the same time as Gliese 581 C.

What gives so much excitement to the scientists about the discovery of the “super-earth” is the fact that the planet is just in the right zone to support liquid water increasing the possibility that it may harbor life.  The planet can either be like Earth or perhaps a waterworld - with no or very little surface land mass at all.  This idea reminds me of a Kevin Costner film called “Waterworld”.  The story is not about a new planet outside the solar system but is about planet Earth itself - after all the land was covered by water.

It might not be too far in the future when we begin to hear a spaceflight stewardess saying, “next stop… Waterworld.”

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