Gliese 581 g

[Guest Taranatar]

For those of you who don't know, this is the planet that was recently discovered orbiting the red dwarf star Gliese 581, and discovered smack-dab in the middle of the star system's habitable zone.  The planet is 3 times as massive as Earth, 1.2 Earth diameters wide, and has a gravity of 1.1 g.  But that isn't even the most interesting part of this.  Two years ago, a laser-like pulse of light was detected coming from that system.  At the time, all the planets that we knew of in that system were too hot to support life.  But now that this world has been discovered right in the habitable zone...

Some other facts about the planet:  Given this world's location, it would be tidally locked, meaning one side would always face the sun, while one would always face away.  Temperatures would range from 160 degrees Fahrenheit on the day side to -24 F on the side night side.  There would be a "twilight zone", a region on the day side, that would have the most Earth-like climates.  Plant life on this world would be black, due to the star being a small, cool, red dwarf, and the plants needing to absorb all the energy they could.  This planet would have no seasons, and no day/night cycle.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Oh yeah, I heard of that.

In fact I researched it and talked about it in another thread, about colonizing other planets in general.