Researcher Who Discovered Habitable Exoplanet Believes Chances of Alien Life There Are '100 Percent'
Gliese 581 Artist's rendering of the star Gliese 581, with exoplanet Gliese 581c (neighbor to newly discovered Gliese 581g) in the foreground. ESO As if there wasn't enough excitement swirling around the discovery of a potentially habitable planet circling the star Gliese 581 just 20 light years away, one of the scientists behind yesterday's announcement upped the ante during a press briefing yesterday afternoon, declaring "my own personal feeling is that the chances of life on this planet are 100 percent." Steven Vogt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz, said he had "almost no doubt" (which seems slightly different than 100 percent sure) that life exists on Gliese 581g, an exoplanet Vogt and colleagues discovered via the Keck Observatory that is orbiting in the "habitable zone" surrounding the red dwarf Gliese 581. The "habitable zone" - a term some scientists are loath to use given the many variables...