NASA, et al., Just Found A Solar System With 7 Earth-Like Planets, but 40 Light Years Away

Mining & Minerals - Evaluations / Off-World Exploration, Mining, & Technology

Date posted: 02/22/17

Jolene Creighton reports that scientists working with telescopes at the European Southern Observatory and NASA announced a remarkable new discovery ... An entire system of Earth-sized planets. The team asserts that the density measurements of the planets indicates that the six innermost are Earth-like rocky worlds. Three of the planets lie in the habitable zone of the star. This means that all three of these alien worlds may have entire oceans of water, dramatically increasing the possibility of life. The other planets are less likely to host oceans of water, but the team states that liquid water is still a possibility on each of these worlds. Lead author Michael Gillon notes that this solar system has the largest number of Earth-sized planets yet found and the largest number of worlds that could support liquid water. Co-author Amaury Triaud notes that the star in this system is an ultracool dwarf, and he clarifies what this means in relation to the planets ... The energy output from dwarf stars like TRAPPIST-1 is much weaker than that of our Sun. Planets would need to be in closer orbits than we see in the Solar System if there is to be surface water. Fortunately, it seems that this kind of compact configuration is just what we see around the star TRAPPIST-1. The system is 40 light-years away. It would still require hundreds of millions of years to get there with today technology, but again, it is notable in that the find speaks volumes about the potential for life-as-we-know-it beyond Earth. These new discoveries ultimately mean that TRAPPIST-1 is of monumental importance for future study. The Hubble is already being used to search for atmospheres around the planets, and Emmanuel Jehin, a scientist who also worked on the research, asserts that future telescopes could allow us to truly see into the heart of this system with the upcoming generation of telescopes, such as ESO European Extremely Large Telescope and new NASA telescopes.