Planet discovered in star's Goldilocks zone

There has been a third planet discovered orbiting the star Gliese 581 in the constellation Libra. The planet is approximately 5 times as massive as the earth and is closer to its star than Mercury is to the Sun.

There have been over 200 exoplanets discovered so far, but most of them have been hot gas giants which are unlikely to support life, at least as we know it. However, Gliese 581 is a red dwarf type star, which means it is a lot cooler than the Sun, and this new planet is orbiting in the stars Goldilocks zone, not too hot - not too cold - but just right for water to exist in its liquid phase.

So if the planet is of the rocky-type, has water, and if its atmosphere is of the right composition, not too thick and not too thin, then it may be habitable. Those are pretty big ifs and planets like these are not thought to be rare but what is significant is that this planet is only 20.5 light years away from the Earth. This distance is large but not insurmountable.

Raise shields

Once outside Earth's protective magnetic field astronauts become exposed to dangerous radiation from the Sun. The Apollo astronauts were exposed to this radiation, called solar wind, on their short trips to the Moon and back. Fortunately for them, there were no major solar storms recorded during their missions. Until recently, not much had been done to tackle the problem of exposure to solar radiation. For example, current astronauts on the international space station have to retreat to a thick-walled room during times of increased solar radiation.

Looking towards the future, British scientists have announced plans to build a magnetic shield that would protect astronauts by deflecting dangerous radiation from the sun. The technology is similar to that currently used in experimental nuclear fusion reactors where a magnetic field is used to contain plasma. The proposed deflector shield would use the same magnetic field technology to keep solar radiation out. Such a shield could be deployed on spacecraft or on planets, and could be turned off when not needed.

This technology will be important to future space exploration, such as NASA's planned moon base or a NASA's planned trip to Mars. In both these missions, unprotected exposure to solar radiation could cause serious problems for the astronauts.

Deflector Shield (Star Trek Wiki)
BBC News Story