Tuesday, October 5, 2010 9:26:55 PM
If there is life there, we wont find it by telescope.
--Personally I always took the fact that we have *never* been visited by an extraterestrial race as proof that there *is* intellegent life out there...
Tuesday, October 5, 2010 5:17:19 PM
Gleise 581g's orbit is only 37 Earth days long. Also, it`s in a tidal lock with Gleise 581, meaning that one side is day, and the other is night all the time. The day side would have scorching temperatures, while the night would be frigid. The only habitable zone of the planet would be the thin strip of twilight zone.
That would almost certainly rule out terraforming it. Even if we could, we`d have to create an entire ecosystem of plants and animals that could function in permanent twilight without seasons and feed humans. Could we even get a suitable atmosphere? The temperature differential between dayside and nightside would be pretty extreme and constant - what would that do to weather?