We may not be alone.
That’s the gist of this evening’s NASA press conference, held in Washington to announce that astronomers have discovered seven Earth-sized planets in a brand new solar system just 39 light years (235 trillion miles) from Earth.
So what do we know so far? Well, the planets orbit the nearby cool dwarf star known as TRAPPIST-1.
The terrain, from what they’ve seen so far, appears to be rocky and astronomers believe they might even be warm enough to boast liquid water. In fact, of the seven new planets, at least three of them have the potential to be perfect for life.
Thrilled astronomers say the discovery, which marks the first time so many planets of a similar size to Earth have been found orbiting one star, means scientists will be able to ascertain whether there is life on them within the next next years.
“The seven wonders of TRAPPIST-1 are the first Earth-size planets that have been found orbiting this kind of star,” said Michael Gillon, lead author of the paper and the principal investigator of the TRAPPIST exoplanet survey at the University of Liege, Belgium.
“It is also the best target yet for studying the atmospheres of potentially habitable, Earth-size worlds.”
The main illustration shows the possible surface of TRAPPIST-1f, one of the newly discovered planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system.
