I would hate anybody to have missed this. The BBC and Astrobiology have reported on the discovery of a 1.5x earth radius extrasolar planet with an average temperature of between 0 and 40 degrees centigrade. The discovery was originally reported in an ESO (European Southern Observatory) press release. The results are published in a Letter to the Editor of Astronomy and Astrophysics¹ that can be downloaded here.

“We have estimated that the mean temperature of this super-Earth lies between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius, and water would thus be liquid,” explains Stéphane Udry, from the Geneva Observatory (Switzerland) and lead-author of the paper reporting the result. “Moreover, its radius should be only 1.5 times the Earth’s radius, and models predict that the planet should be either rocky - like our Earth - or fully covered with oceans,” he adds.

“Liquid water is critical to life as we know it,” avows Xavier Delfosse, a member of the team from Grenoble University (France). “Because of its temperature and relative proximity, this planet will most probably be a very important target of the future space missions dedicated to the search for extra-terrestrial life. On the treasure map of the Universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X.“[ESO Outreach]

In 2005 a Neptune sized planet (17 times earth mass) was discovered orbiting Gliese 581. The results were published in a Letter to the Editor of Astronomy and Astrophysics (which can be downloaded here)². [Via ESO Outreach]

In 2003 the same team had discovered a Jupiter sized planet around the same star. [via ESA]

[via The BBC and Astrobiology]

[UPDATE: Space.com reported this yesterday and does a great job of capturing the impact of the discovery]

1. 1. Udry, S., Bonfils, X., Delfosse, X., Forveille, T., Mayor, M., Perrier, C., Bouchy, F., Lovis, C., Pepe, F., Queloz, D., Bertaux, J.-L. (2007) “The HARPS search for southern extra-solar planets: XI. An habitable super-Earth in a 3-planet system”, Astronomy and Astrophysics. [Online] Internet: http://obswww.unige.ch/~udry/udry_preprint.pdf (Accessed 25 April 2007)
2. 2. Bonfils, X., Forveille, T., Delfosse, X., Udry, S., Mayor, M., Perrier, C., Bouchy, F., Pepe, F., Queloz, D., Bertaux, J.-L. (2005) “The HARPS search for southern extra-solar planets: VI. A Neptune-mass planet around the nearby M dwarf Gl 581″, Astronomy and Astrophysics 443, L15–L18, DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:200500193

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