How will the discovery of Gliese 581g change how religion is viewed in America?

Table of Contents
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………...3
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………….4
Discovery of Gliese……………………………………………………………………………..…4
Characteristics of Gliese 581g...…………………………………………………………………..5
Previous Gliese 581 planets……………………………………………………………………….6
More Planets Possible ………………………………………...…………………………………..7
Doubt ……………………………………………………………………………...………………8
Impact of 581g on the Past………………………………………………………………………...9
Impact of 581g on the Future……………………………………………………………………...9
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………….10

Abstract The discovery of a new planet, Gliese 581g, will have lifelong impacts on how people view religion in America for many years to come. The discovery of this new planet will make many people question their core beliefs on the basic foundations of religion. Through research, we will look at how the characteristics of Gliese 581g possibilities of life and how it impacts our current and future religious decisions. The Bible says “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1New International Version). With that being said, should earth which is singular be changed to earths? The answers too many of our questions on life elsewhere in the universe will be discussed now and for years into the future. The implications on what is found on Gliese 581g will impact not only us, but the future of our children’s children.
Introduction
How will the discovery of Gliese 581g change how religion is viewed in America? The discovery of Gliese 581g will lead to conflicts of history as we know it as well as to new discoveries in the present and future. Will history be changed forever with the discovery of life outside of our planet? First, we will look at the discovery of Gliese 581. Then we will look at the characteristics surrounding Gliese 581g. Next we will look at some of the other planets that were discovered near Gliese 581 and how they differ from planet g. Then we will look at other possible planets to be discovered in the future. Then finally, we will look at how the discovery of Gliese 581g could impact the past history and the future of religion and society as we know it.
Discovery of Gliese The first exoplanet was discovered approximately 15 years ago that was found orbiting a normal star (Economist Newspaper Limited 2007, May 13). Prior to that discover we could have safely claimed that we were the only planet out there that could support life. “The planets in the Gliese 581 system were discovered using spectroscopic radial velocity measurements. Planets ‘tug’ on the star they orbit, causing it to shift in position (stars and planets actually orbit a common center of mass). By measuring the star’s movement in the sky, astronomers can figure out what sort of planets are orbiting it. Multi-planet systems create a complicated signal, and astronomers must tease out the spectral lines to figure out what represents a planet, and what is just “noise” – shifts in the star light not caused by an orbiting planet. Astronomers have developed various ways to reduce such noise in their telescopic observations, but it still creates a level of uncertainty in detecting extrasolar planets” (Atkinson, N. 2010). This planet is named after Wilhelm Gliese who was a German astronomer in 1957 first started to map out stars that were close to earth (Cukavac, T. 2010). That is why this particular solar systems sun is named Gliese 581. Gliese 581 is a dim red star that is approximately 20 light-years away. Gliese 581 is located in the Libra constellation (Overbye, 2010). Gliese weighs in at about a third of the mass of the sun and it’s the 117th closest star to Earth (Lemonick, M. 2010). There are currently 6 known planets that orbit Gliese 581. They are b, c, d, e, f and g. It took astronomers 11 years to find planet g (Overbye, 2010). "It's really hard to detect a planet like this," Vogt said. "Every time we measure the radial velocity, that's an evening on the telescope, and it took more than 200 observations with a precision of about 1.6 meters per second to detect this planet”( University of California, Santa Cruz 2010). Now let’s take a look at some of the characteristics of on planet in particular, Gliese 581g.
Characteristics of Gliese 581g

“Gliese 581g is named "g" because it's the seventh planet discovered in this solar system, and "g" is the seventh letter of the alphabet. But that's a mouthful, so people have already nicknamed this home-away-from-home the Goldilocks planet” (Cukavac, 2010). The “Goldilocks zone” also known as the habitable zone is defined as: “the region of space surrounding a star that is neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water and just possibly life” (Matson, 2010). “The planet is tidally locked into orbit around Gliese 581, which means the same side always faces the star, keeping one side in perpetual daylight and the other in darkness” (Dillow, 2010). Another words, the most comfortable place on this planet would lie between the line that divides the light and dark, known as the “terminator” (Shiga, 2010). This would leave a constant sunrise/sunset effect. Gliese 581g is between three and four times the mass of Earth and its radium is between 1.3 and two times that of the Earth (Chow, 2010). If confirmed, Gliese 581g would be the most Earth-like exoplanet yet discovered among the nearly 500 known extrasolar planets - and the first strong case for a potentially habitable one (Vogt, 2010). The average temperature on Gliese 581g ranges between 10 degrees and minus 24 degrees Fahrenheit (Overbye, 2010). Planet g orbits the red dwarf star once every 37 days. This orbit covers approximately a distance of 14 million miles (Overbye, 2010). This planet is also roughly three times more massive than Earth (Roach, 2010). Its relatively low mass means it should be made mostly of rock like our planet (Shiga, 2010). With the planet being this size similar to that of Earth, “the surface gravity would be about the same or slightly higher than Earth’s so that a person could easily walk upright on the planet” (University of California, Santa Cruz 2010). Next, we will take a look at some of the previous planets of Gliese and their characteristics.

Previous Gliese 581 Planets

Gliese 581c was at one point thought to be in the Goldilocks zone. Researchers that decided that is just on the inside edge of the habitable zone (too close to the star) and this was just three years ago. After they did more research, they decided that the greenhouse effect would turn it into a stifling hell (Overbye, 2010). This planet is located about 15 times closer to the star than Earth is to the Sun. One year on this planet is equal to 13 Earth days because the star is 50 times dimmer than the Sun. It is predicted that it is either a rocky planet, or completely covered by oceans. Researchers estimate the temperature is between 32 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit (Than, 2007).

Gliese 581d is thought to be just on the outside of the habitable zone. This planet could harbor life, but would need a thick atmosphere with a strong greenhouse effect to keep it warm enough to sustain life (Overbye, 2010). This planet is thought to be seven times as big as Earth and could be a liquid ocean on the surface (Ciampaglia, 2009).

Gliese 581e is approximately 1.9 Earth masses. It is the lowest mass extrasolar planet found at that time. It takes 3.15 days to orbit around the star (Atkinson, 2010). Planet 581e is located too close to the star in order to sustain life. The temperature would be too warm and would likely have lots of radiation (Ciampaglia, 2009).

Gliese 581f has the mass of 7 Earth planets with an orbit of 433 days around the star Gliese (Atkinson, 2010).

More Planets Possible

“Scientists usually discover planets that exist outside our solar system—called exoplanets—using what they call the wobble method. They will watch a star, and if there is a wobble in its light that might mean that a planet's gravity is influencing the star's gravitational pull. More than 340 planets have been discovered that way since 1995. Most have been about the size of Jupiter” (Ciampaglia, 2009). Because planets like earth are so small and have a weak gravitational pull, they cannot be located using the wobble method. Astronomers must look for disruptions in starlight to detect these planets. It is a much more time consuming and difficult task (Ciampaglia, 2009). In a recent report for the National Academy of Science, astronomers declared the finding of such planets one of the major goals of this decade. NASA’s Kepler satellite — which was launched in March 2009 as a way to detect Earthlike bodies — is expected to harvest dozens or hundreds (Overbye, 2010). With being able to find Gliese 581g so easily, 10 to 20 percent of all stars may have possibility of having a planet that can maintain life. “There could be tens of billions of these systems in our galaxy” (Roach, 2010).

“Stakes in the search for extrasolar planets have risen even higher with the recent launch of the European Space Agency's planet-hunting spacecraft, COROT, which will use the transit technique to monitor thousands of stars simultaneously. Over the course of its two-and-a-half year mission, it is expected to find up to 40 new rocky worlds, along with tens of new gas giants.
The NASA Kepler mission, scheduled to launch next year, is even more ambitious. The spacecraft would be the first capable of detecting Earth-sized planets in our galaxy. NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder mission is currently on the backburner indefinitely, but it would have the same capability as Kepler. If launched, the satellites will mark an important step in the quest to answer one of humanity's oldest questions: Are we alone in the universe?” (Than, 2007). With all the possibilities on life in the universe, we now move onto doubts that have been raised with having more Earth-like planets out there.

Doubt

With all the technology that exists, people still question without undeniable proof that there is another life-sustaining planet someplace. At an International Astronomical Union Meeting, some astronomers have raised doubts of the possibility that Gliese 581g really exists (Atkinson, 2010). Some scientists are very cautious when it comes to Gliese 581g because of all the uncertainties surrounding the density, composition and atmosphere. All these unknown factors could be addressed with the next generation of giant telescopes and spacecraft sometime in the future. “Other Goldilocks planets have come and gone in recent years (Overbye, 2010). For example, Gliese 581c was once thought to be a potentially habitable planet in 2007, but was later discovered to be too close to the star making the climate too hot to sustain life (Roach, 2010). Also, Gliese 581d was once thought to be a potentially habitable planet as well, and was later determined that is was outside the habitable zone being too cold to sustain life (Lemonick, 2010). With all this being said with the doubts and hopes both ways surrounding Gliese 581g, “I don’t think we’ll be firing up the warp drive just yet to go and colonize it” (Cobb, 2010). Now we will look at what kind of impact the discovery of Gliese 581g will have on the past.

Impact of Gliese 581g on the Past

If Gliese 581g is confirmed a planet with life, it will make people re-examine what they have know from the beginning of religious foundations. First, let’s start by looking at the very beginning. The Bible says “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1New International Version). With that being said, should earth which is singular be changed to earths? When you look at religious beliefs, so much of the history is based on the start with God creating the earth. With that being said, how do you go back to the start of beliefs and say everything needs to be changed? According to our text, Religion and the Twentieth-Century Culture, page 191 says “America was founded on the Bible. Liberal Protestants and secularists attached the authenticity of the Bible, offering evolutionary-based philosophies as an alternative” (Marsden, 2001). This will open up a whole new realm for controversy back to the beginning of time. This could place our country into a whole lot of turmoil by having every American and people from all over the world questioning their own moral beliefs. As Americans question the beliefs of the past, this will then lead to new religious movements into the future. Now let’s move on to the future of religion and society as we know it.

Impact of 581g on the Future

According to our book, “During the Great Awakening, some of the new light preachers successfully popularized the notion that the earth was near the dawn of a new era” pg. 49, (Marsden, 2001). The dawn of a new era could be upon us with the discovery of life on another planet. Will the future of our world come to a standstill? Our religious beliefs are going to move and take on a new era. The Second Great Awakening may be just around the corner if life is found on Gliese 581g or another planet we will have many new things to fill the next Religion and American Culture book.

Conclusion

How will the discovery of Gliese 581g change how religion is viewed in America? The discovery of Gliese 581g will lead to conflicts of history as we know it as well as to new discoveries in the present and future. The discovery of Gliese 581g will lead to conflicts of many religious beliefs worldwide. Upon proof of life on this planet, people will question everything that they thought was safe to believe based on historical evidence. Questioning how the world was even created will open up many new discussions on evolution versus creationism. Once Gliese 581g is proven, this will lead to many new eras in our religious history as well as wars dealing with different religious views. The new age of reform will take on a new meaning; it will be the age of Gliese 581g. Society as we know it will be changed forever, and our children’s children will be learning new religious beliefs.

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