The artistic concept of how one of the TRAPPIST-1 planets would look, according to the available data on their sizes, masses and orbital distances.
Life could have evolved on at least three planets within a newly discovered solar system 39 light years from Earth.
NASA astronomers have detected at least seven worlds the size of Earth that could have liquid water (key to life, as we know it) and that orbit around a dwarf star in the Trappist -1 system.
At about 39 light years from Earth , the planetary system is relatively close to us, in the constellation of Aquarius . Because they are outside our solar system, these planets are scientifically known as exoplanets.
Until now, scientists had only identified a small number of so-called "exoplanets", with the qualities possibly necessary to support life.
However, the new system contains an unprecedented amount of planets the size of the Earth, probably rocky , and the discovery has been designated as an "accelerated jump" in the search for extraterrestrial life.
It is said that three of the new planets are particularly promising because they could harbor oceans. Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the Directorate of Science Missions at NASA, told a press conference in Washington: "This gives us a clue that finding a second Earth is not a question of 'if' but 'when'." .
This system of exoplanets is called TRAPPIST-1 , by the South TRAPPIST telescope installed in the La Silla Observatory in Chile, with which the first discoveries were made. In May 2016, researchers using TRAPPIST announced that they had discovered three planets in the system. Assisted by several ground-based telescopes, including the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory, NASA's Spitzer confirmed the existence of two of these planets and discovered five more, increasing to seven the number of known planets in the system.
The principal investigator Michaël Gillon , of the University of Liège, said: "The planets are very close to each other and very close to the star, which is very reminiscent of the moons that surround Jupiter.
"Still, the star is so small and cold that the seven planets are temperate, which means they could have a little liquid water and, consequently, maybe life on the surface."
The team determined that all the planets in the system are similar in size to Earth and Venus, or a little smaller. And density measurements suggest that at least the six innermost planets are rocky. Because the star is so dim, the planets heat up smoothly despite having much smaller orbits than Mercury, the planet closest to our Sun.
Three planets, classified as TRAPPIST-1e, fyg, orbit in the "habitable" zone where temperatures are adequate for liquid water on the surface.
In contrast to our sun, the star TRAPPIST-1, is classified as an ultra-cold dwarf , has a temperature of about 2280 Cº and is at least 500 million years old . In comparison, the Sun is 4,600 million years old and has a temperature of 5514 Cº.
For its part, the six inner planets are in a temperate zone where surface temperatures range from zero to 100° C. The seven planetary orbits of TRAPPIST-1 are closer to their host star than Mercury is to our Sun. In addition, the planets are also very close to each other . If a person were standing in one of the worlds, they could look up and possibly see the geological features or clouds of neighboring worlds, which would sometimes be larger than the moon in the Earth's sky.
To search for atmospheres around planets using the Hubble Space Telescope NASA. Future telescopes, including the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the James Webb Space Telescope, can be powerful enough to detect life markers, such as oxygen, in the atmospheres of exoplanets.
The first exoplanet was discovered in 1992 and a total of 3,577 have been found to date. Of these, it is believed that less than a dozen are adequate to house life, and NASA said that only three previously known exoplanets were as ideal as those of the new solar system.
Astronomers estimate that there could be up to 40 billion potentially habitable worlds only in our galaxy, the Milky Way.
Please look here for the Source
🅃 🄷 🄰 🄽 🄺 🅈 🄾 🅄 🄵 🄾 🅁 🅁 🄴 🄰 🄳 🄸 🄽 🄶
