On Saturday I put up on this blog a post entitled “Where is the
Most Beautiful View in the Universe?” I imagined nine types of
views that can be considered candidates for the most beautiful view
in the universe. One of the nine types was: The View From a Planet
Orbiting a Binary Star. I depicted a planet where one could view a
double sunset. But the universe has a way of surpassing our wildest
imaginings. Today it was announced by scientists that in a nearby
star system there are 3 “super Earth” planets in the habitable
zone where someone might be able to view not just a double sunset,
but a triple sunset.
The star is Gliese 667C, which is only 22 light years away, pretty
much in the back yard of our sun (the nearest star is a little less
than 5 light years away). Astronomers have discovered three “super
Earth” planets in the habitable zone of this star. The habitable
zone is the region of a solar system that is neither too hot for
liquid water to exist, nor too cold for liquid water to exist. Each
of the planets is a few times larger than the Earth, and life and
water might exist on any one of them.
This star Gliese 667C is actually part of a triple star system, the
other two stars being Gliese 667B and Gliese 667A. The three stars
rotate around each other, but the three super-Earth planets of Gliese
667C revolve around just that star, rather than the whole triple
system of stars.
Since the three super-Earth planets of Gliese 667C are in the
habitable zone, and are not too large to preclude the existence of
life, there seems a quite real chance that life may have evolved on
one of the planets. An observer on such a planet would apparently
have the incredible spectacle of being able to see a triple sunset –
a sunset involving not one sun, but three suns.
Today's news story came up with an artist's depiction of the view
from a planet of Gliese 667C, showing three suns in the triple star
system. However, I doubt whether the artist got things rights. The
artwork shows three whitish yellow suns. But Gliese 667C is a red
dwarf star, and Gliese 667A and Gliese 667B are K class stars, which
means they should have an orange color.
Below is my own depiction of the view from one of the super-Earth
planets revolving around Gliese 667C, and I think this depiction has the correct
color scheme. I imagine life existing on the planet, which is
consistent with what we know about the three super-Earth planets
being in the habitable zone. I also imagine that from one of the
super-Earth planets you would be able to see one of the other
super-Earth planets, and see just a tiny bit of its features. This is
rather plausible given what we know, that these three planets larger
than Earth are fairly close to each other.
So we have a new candidate for a type of view that would be one of
the most beautiful in the universe.
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