Astronomers have discovered seven earth-sized planets orbiting same star which is 40 light-years away according to a study published on wednesday ( 22nd Feb 2017) in the journal of nature. The discovery was announced at a news conference at NASA headquarters in Washington.
This discovery which is outside of our solar system is a rare event because the planets have the winning combination of being similar to the size of Earth and being all temperate, meaning they could have water on their surfaces and potentially support life..
The seven planets were all found in a tight formation around an ultra cool dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1. Some estimates indicate that they are rocky planets rather than being gaseous like Jupiter. Three planets are in habitable zone of the star and may even have oceans on their surfaces. These three planets are called as Trappist-1e, 1f and 1g.
The researchers believe that Trappist-1f is the best candidate for supporting life. It is little bit cooler than Earth but can be suitable with the right atmosphere and enough green house gases.
These planets are very close to each other and the star. They are all within five times within a space five times smaller than the distance from Mercury to our Sun. This proximity allows the researchers to make a study of the planets in depth as well, gaining insight about planetary systems other than our own. The seven planets of Trappist-1 are compared with Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
As we move away from the closest to the star to outwards, the planets have respective orbits from one and half to nearly 13 Earth days. The orbit of the farthest planet is still not known. If you stand on surface of one of the planets, you would receive 200 times less light than you get from the Sun, but you would still receive just as much energy to keep you warm since the star is so close.. It would also afford some views, as the other planets would appear in the sky as big as the moon.
If you stand on Trappist-1f, the star would appear three times as big as the sun in our sky. The researchers believe that because of red nature of the star, the light would be a salmon hue. The researchers believe that the planets were formed together further from the star. Then they would have moved into their current lineup. Like our moon, the researchers believe that the planets closest to the star are tidally locked. This means that the planets always face one side to the star. One side of the planet is night and other side always day;.
As per preliminary studies on climate, the researchers believe that the three planets which are closest to the star may be too warm to support liquid water, while the outermost planet, Trappist-1h, is probably too distant and cold to support water on the surface.
Trappist-1 is a star which is half the temperature and a tenth of the mass of the Sun. It is red, dim and just a bit larger than Jupiter. But these tiny ultra cool stars are common in our galaxy. By using a global network ground-based telescopes like TRAPPIST and space-based telescopes like Spitzer, the researchers continued looking toward the Trappist system and were able to determine the orbits and orbital periods and distances of the planets from the star, their radius and their masses.
The researchers are planning to define the atmosphere of each planet as well as determine whether they truly do have liquid water on their surface and search for life on these planets. All this would happen in the next decade. Even though 40 light years is not too distant, but it would take us millions of years to reach this star system. But for research purpose, it is a close opportunity and the best target to search for life beyond our solar system.
James Webb Space Telescope will be launched i 2018 and positioned at a distance of 1 million miles from Earth with a view of the Universe. It can observe large exoplanets and detect starlight filtered through their atmosphere.. They are also searching for similar star systems to conduct atmosphere research. Four telescopes named SPECULOOS ( Search for habitable planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars) based in Chile will survey the southern sky for this purpose.
This star system will probably outlive us because this type of star evolves so slowly. When out Sun dies, TRAPPIST-1 will still be young star and will live for another trillion years. After we are all gone, if there is another part of the Universe for life to carry on, it may be in the TRAPPIST-1 system.
This discovery which is outside of our solar system is a rare event because the planets have the winning combination of being similar to the size of Earth and being all temperate, meaning they could have water on their surfaces and potentially support life..
The seven planets were all found in a tight formation around an ultra cool dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1. Some estimates indicate that they are rocky planets rather than being gaseous like Jupiter. Three planets are in habitable zone of the star and may even have oceans on their surfaces. These three planets are called as Trappist-1e, 1f and 1g.
The researchers believe that Trappist-1f is the best candidate for supporting life. It is little bit cooler than Earth but can be suitable with the right atmosphere and enough green house gases.
These planets are very close to each other and the star. They are all within five times within a space five times smaller than the distance from Mercury to our Sun. This proximity allows the researchers to make a study of the planets in depth as well, gaining insight about planetary systems other than our own. The seven planets of Trappist-1 are compared with Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
As we move away from the closest to the star to outwards, the planets have respective orbits from one and half to nearly 13 Earth days. The orbit of the farthest planet is still not known. If you stand on surface of one of the planets, you would receive 200 times less light than you get from the Sun, but you would still receive just as much energy to keep you warm since the star is so close.. It would also afford some views, as the other planets would appear in the sky as big as the moon.
If you stand on Trappist-1f, the star would appear three times as big as the sun in our sky. The researchers believe that because of red nature of the star, the light would be a salmon hue. The researchers believe that the planets were formed together further from the star. Then they would have moved into their current lineup. Like our moon, the researchers believe that the planets closest to the star are tidally locked. This means that the planets always face one side to the star. One side of the planet is night and other side always day;.
As per preliminary studies on climate, the researchers believe that the three planets which are closest to the star may be too warm to support liquid water, while the outermost planet, Trappist-1h, is probably too distant and cold to support water on the surface.
Trappist-1 is a star which is half the temperature and a tenth of the mass of the Sun. It is red, dim and just a bit larger than Jupiter. But these tiny ultra cool stars are common in our galaxy. By using a global network ground-based telescopes like TRAPPIST and space-based telescopes like Spitzer, the researchers continued looking toward the Trappist system and were able to determine the orbits and orbital periods and distances of the planets from the star, their radius and their masses.
The researchers are planning to define the atmosphere of each planet as well as determine whether they truly do have liquid water on their surface and search for life on these planets. All this would happen in the next decade. Even though 40 light years is not too distant, but it would take us millions of years to reach this star system. But for research purpose, it is a close opportunity and the best target to search for life beyond our solar system.
James Webb Space Telescope will be launched i 2018 and positioned at a distance of 1 million miles from Earth with a view of the Universe. It can observe large exoplanets and detect starlight filtered through their atmosphere.. They are also searching for similar star systems to conduct atmosphere research. Four telescopes named SPECULOOS ( Search for habitable planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars) based in Chile will survey the southern sky for this purpose.
This star system will probably outlive us because this type of star evolves so slowly. When out Sun dies, TRAPPIST-1 will still be young star and will live for another trillion years. After we are all gone, if there is another part of the Universe for life to carry on, it may be in the TRAPPIST-1 system.
