Audio: Hear St茅phane Udry discuss this feature as part of .
Sounds like the perfect holiday spot: a place with spectacular scarlet sunsets and a balmy climate. Just one problem: it鈥檚 20.5 light years away, on the first habitable alien Earth ever found.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the smallest, lightest planet known at this time,鈥� says St茅phane Udry of the Geneva Observatory, Switzerland. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 at the right distance from its star for liquid water to possibly exist on its surface.鈥�
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Udry鈥檚 team found the planet around a red dwarf star called Gliese 581, using the European Southern Observatory鈥檚 3.6-metre telescope in Chile. They say the planet is five times as massive as Earth and 50 per cent wider, with temperatures of about 0 to 40 掳C at its rocky surface. Such a planet could have water and be habitable.
Its red star would loom 10 times as wide in the sky as the sun does here.
