I have always love Astronomy. Space fascinates me. What could be out there? Could the human race live there? Are there other intelligent life out there?
NASA announced finding of a nearby solar system with seven earth sized planets. The solar system is that TRAPPIST-1 system. All seven planets could have water and have conditions to support life. But three of these planets are in the habitable zone, area where a planet is likely rocky with liquid water. They were discovered with NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.
Image via NASAThe TRAPPIST-1 system is about forty light-years away from us. That is about 235 trillion miles to visit these planets. They are in the constellation Aquarius.
The sun of TRAPPIST-1 is different than our own sun. It is an ultra-cool dwarf. It is so cool that water can survive on a planets very close to the star. All seven planets have orbits closer to their sun than Mercury is to our sun. All of the planets are very close to each other. Astronomers have speculated that you could see geological features and clouds on other neighboring planets.
What an awesome discovery. I love news like this. It is so Geeky KOOL!
Below is a video that shows how long it would take to get to TRAPPIST-1. With our current technology, it would take 1.5 Million years to get there. But it might get a lot quicker in the future.
(Via NASA)
Stay Geeky My Friends!
