Discovery of Seven New Earth- Sized Planets

Discovery of Seven New Earth-Sized Planets  

        Recently Astronomers, lead by Michael Gillon, have made a breakthrough discovery in space and in the world of Astronomy. They discovered at least seven Earth-sized planets orbiting around the same star which is 40 light-years away. These findings were announced at NASA Headquarters. These planets were discovered outside our solar system suggesting a new solar system. Based on the research the planets are all relatively the same size as Earth and are temperate which means they could have water and resources that could potentially support life. The seven planets were apparently all found in close proximity and in the same formation around an “ultracool dward star” called, TRAPPIST-1. Astronomers have estimated their masses and from this information they can tell that the environment of these planets are rocky planets, not gaseous like Jupiter.  

        Three of these seven planets are in the zone of the star known as the “habitable zone” known as TRAPPIST-1e, f and g. Further research have even indicated the possibility of these three planets having oceans on their surfaces. Out of the seven stars Astronomers think that the planet, TRAPIST-1f could be the best possible candidate for support life. Although its temperature is a bit cooler than Earth’s, Astronomers think it could be suitable with the right atmosphere and enough greenhouse gases. 

However even though all of these discoveries sound good, Astronomers still have to wait and see which gases are emitted on each planets because with this information the gases could indicate life which is key. Not only has this risen curiosity but the question of “are we alone” and “could there be other “beings out there is now a real possibility. This is a huge breakthrough because it is the first time so many planets of a similar kind are found around the same star. Sara Seager, professor of planetary science and physics at Massachusetts Institute of technology, said that this discovery is very pivotal and if they’ve learned anything while studying space and planets its that, “where there is one, there are more”, suggesting that there are other solar systems and planets like the ones recently discovered. 

So far Astronomers know that the planets are very closer to each other and the star they are orbiting around. The seven planets are within a space five time smaller than the distance from Mercury to our sun. This distance and proximity between the actually allows researchers to study the planets in depth which will provide insight and information about planetary systems other than our own. Each planet has their own respective orbits from “one and a half to nearly 13 Earth days”. Although the planets are closer to the sun you would receive 200 times less light but you would still recieve enough energy since the star is so close. The planets are so close to each other that if you were to stand on one planet you would be able to see the other planets like you would be able to see the moon. The star, being so close, would appear three times as big as the sun in Earth’s sky. Also because of the red nature of the star, the light would be an interesting salmon color hue. The evolution of the planets is believed to be that the planets former together farther away from the sun and eventually moved into the present order. Astronomers also predict that the plants closets to the star are “tidally locked” meaning that the planets alway face one way to the star; one side of the planet is aways night while the other is always day. From preliminary climate modeling, researchers predict that the three planets closest to the star may be too warm to support liquid water while the outermost planet, TRAPPIST- 1h, is too distant and cold to support water on the surface. 

How They were Discovered:

       The star which these planets are orbiting, TRAPPIST-1, hardly classifies as a star since it has half the temperature and a tenth of the mass in comparison to the sun. The star is red and only a bit bigger then Jupiter. These “ultracool dwarf” stars were originally overlooked by astronomers until Gillon decided to study the space around them. To do this, Astronomers used a telescope called, TRAPPIST, which stands for TRAnsiitng Planets and Planetslmals Small Telescope, to observe the stars starlight and changes in brightness. The researchers saw shadows periodically interrupting the steady pattern of starlight. This interruption is called “transiting”. These shadows indicated planets.  With further research the team of Astronomers were able to discover, by observing starlight through the planets atmosphere, that two of the closets planets to the stars had compact atmospheres in comparison to those of Earth, Venus, and Mars. Further research led them to the discovery of the orbit periods, distances from their stars, radius and masses of the planets. 

        The researchers are now looking to define the atmosphere of each planet and to determine whether there is liquid water on the surface and or signs of life.