Goldilocks

[McKitch]

My kids were reading about a new planet that has been found. They said its name was Goldilocks. They are so excited about the discovery of a new earth. Then a friend tells the kids about how we are probably seeing a planet that is already gone. Do you think that is the case.

 

[Gary]

Nope. The friend is wrong. The planet (who's identifier number escapes me atm) was nick named Goldilocks because it's orbit is similar in distance to it's star as that of Earth to SOL (our sun).

The Goldilocks zone is the safe distance a planet can orbit to have a suitable potential for life as we know it.

The planet is indeed visible, and scientists have been watching it for 10 years or so before the recent announcement to the public.

Your friend is mistaken. He has that thought confused with a star. Stars emit light. Light travels a distance called light speed. If a star twenty light years away went supernova and died, we wouldn't see the flash in the sky then darkness where it was for twenty years.

Planets aren't like that at all. They either reflect light and show a pattern of steady orbit around their star or they don't simple as that.

 

[Robby]

That sounds so cool! I would love to be an astronaut. I thought I'd do that when I was a kid but then college got too expensive and I got a job in the real world. Now I've got a wife and kids and I would never put them through the stress.

 

[emarsh]

I read that the planet is tidally locked with it's star, making it a poor candidate for life. It's significance is it's existence. If there's one, there will be more. We are slowly answering the question of whether there are other planets out there that can support our kind of life.

This is truly the golden age of astronomy.