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Um, yeah, sorry about the wall o' text... I get a bit carried away with this stuff.

The problem with the whole ""505%"" thing is that 5x the insolation at the top of the atmosphere does not necessarily equate to 5x the insolation at the surface.  The effect the atmosphere has as far as where that energy ends up  scattered back into space, absorbed and reradiated in the upper atmosphere, trapped near the surface via a runaway greenhouse effect, etc.  is huuuuuuuge.  We don't know anything about the atmosphere, so it's not really as cut and dried as you might initially think.  I agree with you that some of the media coverage has been a bit more cheerleader-ish than is warranted, and don't particularly want to see that stuff in the article either.  What would be useful to incorporate is a presentation of the literature's discussion of what would be required for Gl 581 c to actually be habitable.  The Selsis paper has a pretty nice treatment, although it's a bit scattered here and there  still worth a pretty close look if you get a chance.  G'nite; I'll look forward to continuing this tomorrow!

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