Photos NASA
Six exo-planets are circling red dwarf star Gliese 581 20 light years distant in the constellation Libra
 
The human search for an exo-planet capable of being a cradle for a new human genesis found what many consider to be the first exo-planet with the physical makeup to make it possible. A team of planet hunters from the University of California (UC) Santa Cruz and the Carnegie Institute of Washington recently announced to the world the discovery of an exo-planet they believe has a few characteristics of an exo-planet with the right stuff to make life possible. Gliese 581g, as it's referred too, has about three times the mass of Earth and appears to be situated in the right spot in the solar system of red dwarf star Gliese 581 for the ingredients of life to exist. This is about dead center in what planet scientists term the habitable zone of Gliese 581, a position planet scientist believe could make it possible for water and an atmosphere to exist on this exo-planet, necessary ingredients for the formation of life, planet scientists believe. 
 
These planet hunters have been using one of the largest time-machine-to-the-stars on the planet, the Keck I Telescope in Hawaii's W.M Keck Observatory, to journey 20 light years to the constellation of Libra to continue the search for more planets circling red dwarf star Gliese 581 that could be habitable. Planet hunters have been using the HIRES spectrometer to precisely measure the radial velocity of the host star - the motion of the star along the line of sight from Earth - and stars close to red dwarf star Gliese 581, in order to try to find other planets circling this red dwarf star. The gravitational pull of orbiting planets causes periodic changes in the radial velocity of the host star that astronomers can calculate using sophisticated mathematical techniques we'll cover on another day. These are the techniques planet hunters used in order to find all of the stars they have found circling red dwarf star Gliese 581, which after the two most recent planet discoveries, brings the total to six exo-planets circling this distant star.
 
The discovery of six exo-planets circling red dwarf star Gliese 581 marks the high-planet mark for the human hunt for planets capable of being a cradle for a new human genesis. Gliese 581g is the only planet of the six exo-planets discovered that astronomers have indicated, so far, as being in the life zone of red dwarf star Gliese 581. This exo-planet orbits its parent star in about 37 days and measurements planet scientists have made of its mass indicates it's probably a rocky planet with a definite surface and enough gravity to hang onto an atmosphere. Gliese 581g is also tidally locked to its parent star, which means that one side of the planet is always facing its host star and in perpetual daylight. This makes some planet scientists believe that the best place for life to exist would be in the terminator, the part of the planet between the day and night sides of the planet.