20-minute video on extrasolar planets (and Gliese 581 in particular)

Great, a 20-minute video on extrasolar planets and the search for other Earths has just been released and it's a definite video to bookmark or send to a friend as a nice way to get a full introduction to extrasolar planet hunting and what we expect to uncover in the near future.



You may recognize the voice there - it's the guy that seems to do the narration for every space.com video.

From around 5:00 to 13:00 the video goes over a number of interesting examples of other solar systems in which we have discovered planets, and then after 13:00 (the most interesting part IMO) it switches back to the subject of red dwarfs and why planets orbiting them should be able to maintain an earthly climate even while being tidally locked. Since red dwarfs are the most common stars out there, they are the single largest factor in determining just how many Earth-like planets there are out there.