New Planets and New Knowledge

Scientists from NASA concluded (per Wired) that the harsh X-ray and ultraviolet radiation slamming into the planet would dissipate any atmosphere like Earth’s and any oxygen in Planet b’s atmosphere would dissipate within 10 million years.

This system is the first of its kind to be discovered, with so many Earth-size planets orbiting an ultra-cool dwarf star.

Tasker, who is an associate professor in the department of solar system science at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, was not involved in the TRAPPIST-1 discovery.

Interestingly, in order to determine there were planets orbiting the star, scientists noticed a dimming of light from the star, as if a planet was passing in front of it.

Dubbed Planet 9 (or Planet 10 for those still desperately clinging to Pluto), Mike Wall at Space.com reports that the existence of the unseen celestial body was first proposed by astronomers in 2014. We can see whether or not they are in the habitable zone by calculating their distances from the star from their orbital periods.

Plus, it has seven potentially life-bearing planets, where we’ve just got the one and maybe, possibly, sometime in either the distant past or future, two.

Tasker acknowledged it is hard for people to stop comparing planets to one another, but she did advocate for – at the least – a better description of what constitutes a habitable zone.

Today is a different story: we know from the discoveries of planet-hunting missions like NASA’s Kepler Telescope, TRAPPIST, and a myriad of other projects, that rocky planets must be out there in abundance. The larger the planet, the greater the wobble of the star.

So, then, how do we know whether planets are in the habitable zone of a star, an area that is warm enough to allow liquid water to exist on the surface, but not so hot that the water has boiled off?

TRAPPIST-1 has three planets in this region, which is exciting. It could also signify that these planets have different weather than we do here on Earth. We know they all have the potential to hold liquid water, but judging from their distance to the star, it’s most likely on just three of them.

Astronomers from NASA and European countries have determined through careful examination that the star known as Trappist-1, which is classified as an ultracool dwarf, has seven Earth-like planets circling it like they’re playing ring-around-the-rosie. We can study therefore them much more closely than others that are much further away. A planet will act on a star gravitationally and cause it to shift position slightly. Are we alone out there? Don’t worry, astronomers are wondering that too!

With the discovery of some new planets that could harbor life that was announced this week, I’m planning my exodus from our handsome blue and green marble and hoping to move on to another before Earth’s natural resources are depleted. Terrifying, true. But to think that there is any form of life outside of Earth keeps us in awe and we all hope to live during the day a discovery is made. We can measure these dips in light, and their frequency, to find a planet. Many others joined the hunt for habitable exoplanets around Trappist-1, including NASA with its Spitzer telescope. We can use telescopes, like the James Webb Space Telescope which will launch in 2018, to observe the atmosphere there, and even its bio-signature if present. A dazzling new eye on the universe, JWST will look at the cosmos in infrared light, where TRAPPIST-1 glows brightest.

This star, which is located 39 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius – now hidden in sunlight on the far side of the sun as seen from Earth – is a very small star only barely massive enough to sustain the nuclear fusion reactions that produce its energy, and only barely larger across than Jupiter. If there is life on any of the Trappist planets, we can study its atmosphere for similar signs. If this is the case, the planets might have one of the most essential ingredients for sustaining life. While that doesn’t sound much like the life we know on our planet, experts believe it wouldn’t completely negate the possibility of life: what really matters is the atmosphere. Very alien life, as it were, but life.