TRAPPIST-1

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TRAPPIST-1 is a cool red dwarf star with seven known exoplanets. It lies in the constellation Aquarius about 40.66 light years away from Earth. The system is far too faint to be seen with the unaided eye. Around a star which is 12 times less massive than the Sun and only slightly larger than Jupiter, there are at least seven planets in orbit. They have sizes and masses comparable to the Earth and Venus. 

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1M5eylQxTukS52jzzB6ezixTsgsPCzP75

Because we know the distance of the planets to their star, and the temperature of the star, we can deduce that they receive an amount of light that is similar to many of the planets in the Solar system, from Mercury to Mars. Three or four of them reside within their star's habitable zone, meaning they orbit at the right distance to support liquid water on their surfaces. 

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1pKK5kLQmnGmUwmA9Il1eI-_F2lAuv4Br

TRAPPIST stands for "Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope," which is actually a pair of telescopes: one at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory in Chile and another at the Oukaïmeden Observatory in Morocco.

Comments

  1. englishdiaryNovember 19, 2023 at 9:54 PM

    Are they interesting for us because there is a chance there's life there?

    ReplyDelete

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