gliese 581g

maybe i'm missing something...
last year, much before this Gliese hype started a few days ago, i remember seeing a grreat special on History or Discovery that talked about a possible robtic mission on Gliese. The planet itself was already described as being the best chance for life among the exoplanets already discovered...

it was well done w/ cg and enjoyable to look at...

so why now all this hype? Gliese has been discovered a few years ago, it was already characterized as being a very likely location for life....

did i miss something?

cheers

Yeah, I believe you're thinking of the last planet they THOUGHT could harbor life in that system; was it 581d? Anyway, they found it to be not as hospitable as they hoped. g is a newly discovered planet that they currently believe has a better chance for bearing life (or at least having liquid water somewhere on the surface).

That was discussed in the original thread...why is this now making news.

It has finally become a bit more announced about the possibility, endorsements, etc. now, you can speculate that there is more to the story and why its suddenly being pushed forward into the public mind...my personal -belief- is that they found something but don't want to freak out the people just yet before they have a chance to let the possibilty soak in...so have upped its status in the public arena to consider it

perhaps in a year or two, there will be a new "breakthrough" on the study of the planet announced to the public...signs of life...signatures of perhaps plant life or something through its atmospheric composition...something that will be debated for years and years in the scientific community until general consensus is that there is some form of basic plantlife on the planet.