Quote:
Originally Posted by evman150
I know I will come off sounding like an ass here, but this is a statement more directed at society than directly at you.
How does one even pose this question? How are there gaps that big in our education that someone can pose this question?
It is so fundamental...so fundamental. It really is a sad commentary on the science education the general public receives.
As for this old article, for those wondering, the planet has such a short year (period) because it is so close to the star, which is because the star only shines at 2700K, because the star is a red dwarf. And the luminosity of a star is proportional to the temperature to the fourth power. So a star with a temperature of 2700K is (5760/2700)^4 ~ 21 times less luminous (Solar temperature = 5760K). And that doesn't include the square dependence on radius. Assuming it's about half the radius of the Sun (reasonable assumption), that's another 4 times less luminous, for a grand total of ~ 80-85 times less luminous than the Sun. So that is the reason the so called "habitable zone" is so close to the star, and also why the period is so small.
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Asking how many light years is mars from earth is no more ridiculous than asking how many km is mars from earth. Microlightyears vs Megakilometers, right? Someone else already pointed out that the question offers perspective.