New Watery Planet

February 21, 2012, a new headline being publish introduces a waterworld that could possibly sustain life very much like earth. The headline titles “New Type of Alien Planet.” At first the headline throws me off because I thought we have discover alien life on a planet, but it is nothing more than a waterworld. Despite that the planet is quite interesting. First of all, scientists called the planet GJ 1214b. They know about the planet two years already, but it is only recently that they can provided proof what the watery planet. The process to prove this is by using the Hubble’s Space Telescope to determine the composition of the planet’s atmosphere and how it filtered the starlight by how the planet cross in front of the red dwarf.

The planet is about 40 light-years away. The planet is showed to be a steamy atmosphere orbiting the red dwarf star. Scientists have concluded that the density of GJ 1241b is about two grams per cubic centimeters; whereas the Earth’s density is about 5.5 grams per cubic centimeters. This means that the planet have much more water than Earth does.

Also, with the launched of the new NASA James Webb Space Telescope set to be launch in 2018, it could help us learn more about the planet.

With such a great planet and stories of pollution on Earth, the GJ 1214b might be a new home for humans. Wrong. Not only that scientist have concluded that the estimated surface temperature of the planet to be about 446 degrees Fahrenheit, which is way too hot for humans, but it is also 40 light-years away. Unless the temperature of the planet decreases dramatically to accommodate human life and someone invented a spaceship or shuttle that can travel at hyper-speed, like in the movie Star Wars, it cannot be a place for humans to colonize. Still, we gain a priceless knowledge of knowing that there other planets that could possibility hold life. We might be able to discover real alien life-forms, assuming that they will not try to conquer or destroy us for our resources like in the 1996 movie “Independence Day” starring Will Smith & Jeff Goldblum.


I think that the James Webb Space Telescope will be a fine addition in helping astronomer knowing more about the universe. To see the possible deployment animation of the James Webb Space Telescope, go to Samantha Rorick's blog. Here is the link to her blog: http://iknowsomeofthesewords.blogspot.com/2012/02/hubbles-successor-james-webb-space.html