Closest Goldilocks planet found, Wolf 1061c at 14 LY

Telegraph story

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The planet, which is more than four times the mass of the Earth, is one of three to orbit Wolf 1061, a small, red dwarf star discovered early last century by German astronomer Max Wolf.

All three planets are believed to be rocky, like Earth, but only the middle one is believed to be inhabitable.

"The middle planet Wolf 1061c, is orbiting within the so-called 'Goldilocks zone' — the habitable zone where it might be possible for liquid water and maybe even life to exist," Mr Wright said.

"This discovery is especially exciting because the star is extremely calm… While a few other planets have been found that orbit stars closer to us than Wolf 1061, those planets are not considered to be remotely habitable.”​

Damn, that's close enough, human exploration is theoretically something that could happen.

Yep. A quick chart

% of light speed vs travel time.
1% - 1,400 years
2% - 700 years
5% - 280 years
10% - 140 years
20% - 70 years
30% - 47 years
40% - 35 years
50% - 28 years

But that's for us to get there. For them to get here might take a fraction of that time. Who knows how advanced they might be?

But at 4 times the mass of Earth, I'd expect the gravity to be a good deal higher and so probably not all the habitable either.

Not necessarily. Depends on its density. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and only about 1.15 G's. Cube and square laws do their little dance.

The higher gravity increases the chance of a very thick atmosphere which could result in a Venus like temperature considering Wolf 1061C is suggested to orbit on the inner edge of the habitable zone. If the planet isn't that hot though, gravity doesn't really affect the chances for life. To sealife gravity is almost irrelevant.

I was thinking more in terms of human habitation.

This Superearth might have a moon, or moons, that are Earth like(?)!

I doubt they'd be Earth like. Our moon is freakishly large (an oddball in our solar system) due to a large impact, let it's still only about 1.2% the mass of Earth.

Surface gravity should follow the formula g(Mass) = G*(4*pi*rho)^(2/3) * Mass^(1/3), where G is Newton's gravitational constant and rho is average density.

So if the planet is four times heavier and the average density is the same as Earth, it's surface gravity would be 1.587 G or 15.57 m/sec^2. But this could be completely offset by having an average density that's exactly half as much as Earth's, which has the highest density of all our planets:

s.g. - planet
5.4 - Mercury
5.2 - Venus
5.5 - Earth
3.9 - Mars
1.3 - Uranus
1.6 - Neptune

So if the density of the Wolf 1061c was 2.75, it would have identical surface gravity to Earth. If it had Mars' density its surface gravity would be 1.26 G's. If it had Neptune's density its surface gravity would be 0.7 G's.

This is both an amazing time to be alive and an amazingly frustrating one. We're finding planetary systems pretty much everywhere we look for them, but we've not yet reached the point where we can go have a good look.

Dammit, I want my warp drive!!

Warp drive!? How about the ability to get to low earth orbit without having to rely on Cold War Soviet equipment.

I don't want to go anywhere named Wolf. Got bad memories.....

Wolf 359 is the 5th closest star to us. Only 7.8 light years away.

If they can get here faster than in 28 years while travelling at 50%c, I would be extremely impressed.

Well, that interstellar bypass is due to be completed by 2021 IIRC, that should cut a few years off the transit time.

In theory - "galaxial sprawl" is spreading so fast that all an interstellar bypass does is put on a band aid. It doesn't address the real problem.

They could if they hired this pilot.....

It doesn't sound very promising. One side super hot and always facing the sun, the other side extremely dark and cold and always facing away from the sun. You'd have to try to live in the twilight area hoping not to roast or freeze and that is assuming there is even oxygen which seems unlikely.

Going further off-topic, I wonder when this picture is from and its context. He's got a badge and a pistol, so apparently he's playing a cop.

Probably a fairly recent movie since he looks about as old as in the new Star Wars movie.

That's from Hollywood Homicide, from 2003.

Mark Kelly finally got a zinia to bloom on the ISS. A month ago it had problems, and his tweet was hilarious, as was the reply.

I still think NASA is way too quick to label planets "goldilocks" worlds or hype the idea that they could support human life.

Personally I'll be more impressed once they can identify planets slightly smaller than Earth with free oxygen and liquid water.

It's all fairly academic, as humans won't be living in other solar systems for a long time to come. But the "goldilocks" analogy is still a useful one, because we're pretty sure there won't be any potential for life on planets where surface temperatures are 700 degrees C or -200 degrees C.

Why can't they wait for something at least vaguely Earth like if it is academic anyway?

This is what I see as a bad habit of NASA. Hyping minimalist accomplishments or discoveries. It takes lots of the enthusiasm away from actual accomplishments and discoveries

Minimalist? Earth-sized planets in the right orbits around their parent stars, discovered at interstellar distances, and you call that minimalist.

He wants NASA to find to evidence of space battles.

URDH