Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Alien Landscapes

Check out today's Astronomy Picture of the Day. It shows an artist's vision of what the newly discovered 'earth-like planet' Gliese 581c might look like, complete with very large and dim red dwarf sun looming low on the horizon. In addition to being a larger star than our sun, this star would look huge to planet dwellers due to the very close orbital distance (closer than Mercury's orbit around our sun). None of us will ever experience a truly alien landscape such as this, but it is interesting to speculate about what it would be like.

3 comments:

Kathleen said...

It's only 20 light years away? I thought it was much further than that - like 120 light years.

Still, cool picture.

TheWriteGirl said...

I know, it feels like we're practically next-door neighbors! Maybe we should invite them over for coffee. It would be rude not to.

Beth said...

20 light years. That's the thing. The distance. I'd go in a heartbeat though. This kind of thing tickles my fancy.