You may remember that I told you about a lovely little earth-like planet about 20 light-years from here called Gliese 581g? Scientists announced its discovery only two weeks ago. The lead researcher, Steven Vogt, even went as far as to say that he was “100 percent” certain that there would be life on 518g.
Well…it turns out that the planet might not even exist.
Well…it turns out that the planet might not even exist.
Vogt based his original discovery of the planet on a mix of previously published data and his work at Hawaii’s Keck Observatory. The data that Vogt used was collected using Chile’s High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, also known as HARPS. The publishers of the original data have come out with a new report that lacks any evidence for Gliese 581g.
Ray Jayawardhana, Professor at the University of Toronto and Canada Research Chair in Observational Astrophysics reported on various social networks that researchers could, “not confirm [Gliese 581g] in our HARPS data”.
It’s not that researchers just don’t see 581g, they found that if they forced a solution, they got a negative signal, implying that the planet isn’t there at all, not just that they can’t see it. Because let’s be honest here, it has to be pretty easy to miss something that’s 20 light-years away.
What makes this study any different from the original study? There is 50% more data about the Gliese system since the 2008 data series that Vogt and his team analyzed. Astronomer Francesco Pepe of the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland spoke on October 11 at an International Astronomical Union (IAU) symposium on planetary systems.
(Let’s not forget that the IAU decided that Pluto wasn’t allowed to be a planet…I’m still holding a grudge).
Regardless, Pepe said that by adding 60 extra data points to the 2008 data, he and his colleagues could find no trace of the planet. Vogt told Wired.com that he was “not overly surprised by this as these are very weak signals, and adding 60 points onto 119 does not necessarily translate to big gains in sensitivity.” He also added that non detection doesn’t necessarily mean that the planet doesn’t exist, but that it may only be detectable using both data sets.
So I’m sorry if I got you excited. I’m pretty sure that I told you that you couldn’t pack up and move 20 light-years away...but now you know that if you try to move there, there might not be anywhere for you to go.
Still, scientists are trying to determine the existence of a planet 20 light-years away based on minute fluctuations, it could be decades before they have enough data to conclusively prove whether or not 581g exists, let alone whether or not it contains life. Until then, Gliese 581g is Schrödinger's Planet.
Ray Jayawardhana, Professor at the University of Toronto and Canada Research Chair in Observational Astrophysics reported on various social networks that researchers could, “not confirm [Gliese 581g] in our HARPS data”.
It’s not that researchers just don’t see 581g, they found that if they forced a solution, they got a negative signal, implying that the planet isn’t there at all, not just that they can’t see it. Because let’s be honest here, it has to be pretty easy to miss something that’s 20 light-years away.
What makes this study any different from the original study? There is 50% more data about the Gliese system since the 2008 data series that Vogt and his team analyzed. Astronomer Francesco Pepe of the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland spoke on October 11 at an International Astronomical Union (IAU) symposium on planetary systems.
(Let’s not forget that the IAU decided that Pluto wasn’t allowed to be a planet…I’m still holding a grudge).
Regardless, Pepe said that by adding 60 extra data points to the 2008 data, he and his colleagues could find no trace of the planet. Vogt told Wired.com that he was “not overly surprised by this as these are very weak signals, and adding 60 points onto 119 does not necessarily translate to big gains in sensitivity.” He also added that non detection doesn’t necessarily mean that the planet doesn’t exist, but that it may only be detectable using both data sets.
So I’m sorry if I got you excited. I’m pretty sure that I told you that you couldn’t pack up and move 20 light-years away...but now you know that if you try to move there, there might not be anywhere for you to go.
Still, scientists are trying to determine the existence of a planet 20 light-years away based on minute fluctuations, it could be decades before they have enough data to conclusively prove whether or not 581g exists, let alone whether or not it contains life. Until then, Gliese 581g is Schrödinger's Planet.
