Before the big reveal, lots of speculations are going around regarding NASA’s exciting discovery. Some people say that they will finally announce of the existence of extraterrestrials.
Some even says that they will launch a project like what we saw on movies (like Passengers and Interstellar) where people will be sent out to new planets to build new life.
None of these are correct as NASA announced that their telescope discovered seven new planets around a tiny, nearby, ultra-cool dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1.
What’s more exciting and amazing about their discovery is that three of the seven earth-sized planets are firmly in the habitable zone.
https://www.facebook.com/NASA/videos/10154931813441772/
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope newest discovery sets a new record for greatest number of habitable planets found around a single star, outside our solar system.
All of the newly discovered planets have liquid water which is a big sign of life.
They all have the right atmospheric conditions but chances of human life are bigger with the three habitable zone.
According to Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, this discovery is a significant piece in the puzzle of finding new habitable earth-like planets.
This is also a big step forward toward the goal of answering the question ‘Are We Alone?’, which becomes a top science priority for the agency.
The new planets are about 40 light-years away (235 trillion miles) from Earth. It’s relatively close to us and NASA classified them as exoplanet as they are located outside our solar system.
This exoplanet system is called TRAPPIST-1, named for The Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile.
Back in May 2016, researchers using TRAPPIST discovered three new planets in the system.
And with the assistance of several ground based telescopes, the existence of these planets are confirmed and discovered 4 additional ones thus the existence of TRAPPIST-1 system with seven planets.
These discoveries were published publicly on February 22, 2017 and were officially announced at a news briefing at NASA headquarters in Washington.
This 360-degree panorama depicts the surface of a newly detected planet, TRAPPIST 1-d, part of a seven planet system some 40 light years away.
Explore this artist’s rendering of an alien world by moving the view using your mouse or your mobile device.
Notice the new @GoogleDoodles? It's about the 7 Earth-sized planets we discovered around nearby star! Get the news: https://t.co/G9tW3cJMnV pic.twitter.com/dOHB0bLqXn
— NASA (@NASA) February 23, 2017
Take a 360° tour of TRAPPIST-1d, one of the Earth-sized plants in the newly discovered system ~40 light-years away: https://t.co/5mMKpRPcoc pic.twitter.com/RRuPiOleOe
— NASA (@NASA) February 22, 2017
The TRAPPIST-1 star & 7 Earth-sized planets orbiting it, are relatively close to us; located ~40 light-years away: https://t.co/QS80AnZ2Jg pic.twitter.com/GiKAFXyNvo
— NASA (@NASA) February 22, 2017
For more of this NASA discovery and announcement, visit their official press release at this link.
(via NASA.GOV, NASA Facebook, NASA Reddit AMA)
