Little Gliese 581 is an entirely unremarkable star. Like the vast majority of known stars in our galaxy, it’s an M dwarf. More exactly, its spectral class is M3V, which is about a third of a class away from the dimmest possible main sequence stars, the lower limit for them being estimated around M6.5. Compared to the Sun, its luminosity is a mere 1.3%, its mass 31% and its diameter 29%. Though it’s in our galactic neighborhood, it’s only the 117th closest star to us and, due to its very low luminosity, there’s no way you could ever see it while looking up at the sky. In addition, its low metallicity, with estimated values ranging between -0.02 and -0.33, could have made it uninteresting for exoplanet hunters, since it is generally assumed that planets are more likely to form around stars with higher metallicity.
However, since 2007 it has been one of the most interesting stars because of the planets discovered around it. First it was Gliese 581 c, at the time thought to potentially be in the habitable zone. However, that assumption was quickly dropped as further research showed that the planet is a little too close to the star and likely suffers from a runaway greenhouse effect similar to that seen on Venus. But the enthusiasm never really subsided, because Gliese 581 d, discovered at the same time, was just outside the star’s habitable zone and massive enough to hold on to a very thick atmosphere, which could create a strong enough greenhouse effect to bring its surface temperature above freezing.
Until yesterday, Gliese 581 d was considered the known exoplanet most likely to have conditions that could potentially support life. It was a little too far from its star to avoid being completely frozen under normal circumstances and right at the upper mass limit for potentially rocky planets, therefore somewhat likely to in fact be something of a small gas giant, but it was the best we had. Until yesterday…
But now, two more planets have been discovered around good old Gliese 581, and one of them, Gliese 581 g, certainly seems to be the first discovered exoplanet that truly matches our definition of habitable. At 0.146 AU from such a dim star, it’s very clearly inside the habitable zone, and a mass estimated at 3.1 to 4.3 times that of Earth means it’s certainly not a gas giant. Its radius should be larger than Earth’s, but no more than double, and in fact most likely no more than 50% larger. Its surface gravity should therefore be between 10% and 70% stronger than Earth’s, which means that a human would be able to walk on it, though with some difficulty. As for the temperature, which is the other crucial factor, alongside mass, in determining whether a planet fits our definition of habitable, the global average is estimated to be between 236 and 261°K (-37 to -12°C, -35 to 10°F). However, that estimate is based on an Earth-like greenhouse effect, but Gliese 581 g’s stronger gravity makes it likely to have a thicker atmosphere, or at least one that is thicker at low altitudes, which could enhance the greenhouse effect and therefore increase the temperature.
A potential problem is that, being so close to its parent star, Gliese 581 g is very likely tidally locked, which means one of its sides constantly faces the star and the other constantly faces away from it. That can create some really interesting weather patterns, but certainly doesn’t have to prevent the existence of life. In fact, seeing as the temperature varies dramatically between the light side and the dark side, with the estimated averages likely only found in the “land of constant twilight” that separates the two, this could even help life, as it means that any organisms that exist on Gliese 581 g can move slightly towards one side or the other to find just the right temperature for their survival. Since conditions on the light and dark sides of the planet are likely to be exteme, it’s unlikely that any reasonably advanced life exists outside this “land of constant twilight”, yet simple organisms could certainly be found all over the planet, seeing as certain organisms thrive in extreme habitats even here on Earth.
Interestingly, the two new discoveries also mean that the Gliese 581 system is now the system with the highest number of confirmed planets, namely six, because HD 10180 only has five confirmed planets, the other two still being considered only planet candidates among scientists, though the team that discovered the system is pretty confident that the signals have been correctly identified. This also means that the 55 Cancri system finally drops down the order, after being the one with the most confirmed planets ever since 2004, though matched by HD 10180 recently.
So good old Gliese 581 really is the little star that could and perhaps will remain so no matter what we’ll keep discovering from now on, because it was the first around which potentially habitable planets have been discovered. Also, seeing how utterly unremarkable its characteristics make it out to be, and especially seeing as its low metallicity wouldn’t appear to make it a suitable candidate for even having planets in the first place, these discoveries should make us see our galaxy in a new light because, if they could be found around such a star, then such planets must be really common indeed. Which is, of course, no surprise, but many people need to be reminded of it…
Now let’s see what’s next, because exciting times are certainly ahead for exoplanet hunters. I for one am still waiting for the flood of Kepler candidate signals to be verified and the confirmed planets published, though it doesn’t appear likely that any significant number of discoveries will be published soon and, if they stick to hoarding the data and not letting anyone help for fear of stealing their glory, I’m even starting to doubt I’ll see the full results of the mission within my lifetime. But only time shall tell…
Until then, I’m curious to see who’ll discover the 500th exoplanet and what its characteristics will be, seeing as The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia currently lists 492.
Five years since she left, just about now… And nothing changed inside me in that respect, only the hope, which was so strong back then, being lost along the way, leaving behind only the fake trace of it that I’m forced to sustain because I was too much of a coward to do what had to be done while there was still a point in doing it…
And I’m just told to “hang in there” by people who don’t understand any of it anyway. Admittedly, one of the very few people who isn’t ignoring me completely yet, but it’s not far from that either… Well, don’t you worry, I’m not going anywhere, at least not intentionally, because there is no point in that anymore and I’d still be too much of a coward for it even if there was still a point. But there’s absolutely no reason to “hang in there” either and I don’t see how or why could there ever again be one.
Nearly a year and a half ago, I was posting Google Analytics statistics for my blog’s first two years at that location. Now I guess I’ll need to post the final statistics for it, which will be split in three parts: Total (including what I listed last time), since the previous listing and only the last month (including the last week, when the site no longer existed, as there were a few views recorded from people who accessed cached versions of the site).
This shouldn’t interest anyone, but the posted statistics will be much more detailed now than they were the last time, seeing as this is a final report. There has always been a filter set to make Analytics ignore my own visits, so those won’t mess with the statistics. Having a screen width of less than 1280 will make the table look really weird, and in fact a width greater than 1280 is required to make absolutely everything fit properly.
Notes:
* There are multiple Google entries, mainly caused by people who loaded the page from the Google cache. Only entries listed in the top 25, namely the main one, “google.com” and “google.nl”, have been added together to produce the listed result. The actual percentage of visitors coming from Google is therefore slightly higher than the one listed, while the total number of sources is lower. This doesn’t apply to the last month, where I added all Google listings accurately.
** Due to cached pages and pages generated by internal searches, the actual percentage for that page is slightly higher than the one listed, as only the entries that showed up in the top 25 have been added together. It’s possible that a few other pages could benefit slightly from this, but the impact would be negligible. On the other hand, for this same reason, the actual number of different pages is much lower than the one listed. This doesn’t apply to the last month for landing pages, where I added all listings accurately, but does apply everywhere for pages viewed.
I should also add the records for one day: 169 visitors, 180 visits and 257 pageviews. All of these have been set on August 16th, 2009, when somebody apparently decided to promote the Perfect World International Information Dump on StumbleUpon.
And while I’m at it, I’m uploading screenshots of the full visitors, visits and pageviews graphs. Notice what happened as soon as I wrote that post… (The significant spikes in pageviews not associated with similar spikes in visitors or visits tend to reveal when someone who knows me, or at least used to know me, first got to my blog.)
The landing pages and viewed pages could say that there’s no point in me writing anything anymore, but seeing as I don’t write to be read, but just to let some things out and, hopefully, turn just a little more of the mess inside my head into human-readable concepts, I’m not going to care about that…
Cav’s Place is dead; long live Cav’s Place! This time sitting nicely in its own home and no longer depending on people who could, and did, throw it away like a worn rag…
Please update your links, as I will need to do the same with those placed inside posts. Which will be a very tedious task, as there are hundreds of them, if not over a thousand, but I guess it has to be done. Let’s just hope that a search for the old address will return all posts that have links to it, so I’ll just need to take it from there. Changed posts as far back as June and there seem to be 118 of them left to modify. Don’t expect them to be updated right away though, as this is not a priority. But at least I’m putting in the links properly now, so another move won’t require a similar process.
If you notice any problems other than broken links inside posts, please let me know immediately. Thanks in advance.
The plan would be to eventually create a larger site and have the blog be just a part of it, so it’ll at least make some sense to have my own domain and a hosting package. But don’t hold your breath for that, because I highly doubt I’ll even start planning it this year. There could be one other project started in the next few months, but that’s pretty much it.
Otherwise, I expect the tremendous majority of visitors will still be looking for the Perfect World International Information Dump page, which is why it’s getting a link right here. For anything else, I guess you’ll need to wait for search engines to learn the new address…
Edit: This is strange. Apparently if I replied to someone’s comment very shortly after they posted it my comment now shows up before the one I replied to. Can get confusing…
Note (May, 2012): The “huge disappointment” option mentioned there at the end ended up being the correct one for them as well. I must apologize if my posts led anyone to believe otherwise.
In a turn of events that initially surprised me so much I thought it was only a joke, though after a little consideration I realized I should have seen it coming, Remus Cernea stated today that he and certain other leading members are leaving our Greens to form a new party. The message lists the following reasons for the move: “The viewpoints we have publicly expressed, validated even by official documents from the European Greens, have been systematically ignored, blocked or strongly opposed by some of the party’s leading members. […] When it became clear to us that the values of the European Greens are not shared but even challenged by some of our colleagues with decision making prerogatives inside the party, we decided that we can only serve these values by initiating a new political construct.”
The new party they mean to create is currently referred to as “Snow White” because of a recent blog post by presidential adviser Sebastian Lazaroiu. That post was written “for those in the know” and gave the results of a recent opinion poll without specifying which party got which percentage, then went on to predict election results, whether they would be organized now or at the proper time, in 2012. Those predictions were:
“Now:
• Little Red Riding Hood 26%
• The Little Match Girl 25%
• Santa Claus 23%
• The Goat and Her Three Kids 15%
In 2012:
• Snow White 35%
• Little Red Riding Hood 26%
• The Little Match Girl 12%
• Santa Claus 12%
• The Goat and Her Three Kids 8%”
The only explanation given in the post was: “If a single party will dominate in 2012, then I can guarantee just one thing: It won’t be any of the ones you already know. If no single party will dominate, then three will. And all three [will be] fairy tale characters.” So people started trying to work it out, assuming that Little Red Riding Hood means the Social Democrats (PSD) due to the party’s official color, The Little Match Girl means the Liberals (PNL) for reasons that escape me, Santa Claus means the newly created People’s Party due to the utterly impossible promises its founder and president keeps making and The Goat and Her Three Kids means the Democrat Liberals (PDL) due to the three groups known to exist inside the party. As for Snow White, it was assumed to mean a new party, made up of members untainted by involvement in the kind of politics Romania has seen so far. Which is why the term was used to refer to the new party before its official name will be announced, next Wednesday.
About who will the members of this new party be, the message states: “Alongside us, besides former members of the Green Party and other environmentalist parties, public figures who have not previously been involved in politics, members of some nongovernmental organizations, young businesspeople who had successful private endeavors without being subscribed to State contracts, people who studied abroad and returned to help develop Romania, as well as many, very many intelligent and capable youths, will be a part of this new construct.” It also states that the party could comfortably accommodate “those sensitive towards environmental issues but with a modern Social Democratic bent, as well as Liberals fond of defending individual rights and free initiative“.
As for their doctrine: “The new party will be a Progressive one, which will focus particularly on knowledge (scientific research and education being priorities), preserving the environment, defending and promoting human rights, fairness and social solidarity, a well-functioning democracy, developing a sustainable economy and fighting corruption. We will also take it upon ourselves to promote the rights of national or religious minorities, the separation of Church and State, LGBT rights or a much more significant representation of women in politics.” And if there was any more need, the message also states that they will approach topics that have so far been taboo in Romanian politics and publicly express viewpoints that may currently go against the will of most Romanians.
Remus’ views, most often supporting the separation of Church and State, LGBT rights and the rights of the Hungarian and Roma minorities, are obviously in stark contrast with those of the vast majority of Romanians, who vehemently oppose all those things, but at first it looked as if the Greens could accommodate them, though it was obviously a case of “the independent Remus Cernea supported by the Green Party”, with his views being grafted upon theirs. But it appears that the support and grafting only went so far and problems soon arose, though his first real mention of them was very recently, when he said that he “came under heavy fire” even inside the party because of his last post supporting LGBT rights.
Yesterday, while replying to a comment posted on Facebook, he stated that: “An entire mechanism aimed at setting me aside was recently set in motion inside the party (saying that I was a “Satanist”, “betrayer of kin and country”, that I “turned the party into the gay party” and other such nonsense). It’s not by accident that I recently posted that picture of [me holding] The Satanic Verses – believe it or not, in the case file they made for me it’s “evidence” that I’d be a “Satanist”. This really is how some people think… If it’d just be random people it wouldn’t be much of a problem, but when they’re at the top of a political structure and their vote matters in making decisions, things get complicated… […] You will soon see violent attacks aimed against me. Basically, some people, including some trained by the secret service, made a goal out of harassing and stopping me as much as they can… […] I’ve obviously been expecting this ever since I got involved in politics and will continue what I started, one way or the other… I don’t give up so easily…”
Someone suggested “The Progressive Party” as the name for the new party and I also think that’d sound just about right, though the term “progress” may make some remember the Communist days, which could be a problem, plus that the PP abbreviation has also been used by The Pensioners’ Party, is currently most notably being used by The People’s Party and in the future may also be used by The Pirate Party, if they’ll manage to get themselves officially registered. Though The Pirate Party, in its current form, already had an agreement with the Greens and Remus seems to fully support them, so they may be absorbed into his new party, and in fact I think it’d be a bad idea to not do so.
Either way, it’ll be interesting to see what will happen next. This may really turn out to be what the Romanian political scene needs just as well as it may be a huge disappointment. I’ll certainly be keeping my eyes on them every step of the way, especially when it comes to making sure that the environment doesn’t end up being a lesser priority than the other issues listed in the statement…
