Week 3 [03-09.04.2017] Astronomers Discover

On 22th of February 2017 NASA informed about a crucial discovery. The details of this discovery have been described in the prestigious magazine: Nature.

Astronomers have found that in the 40 light-years away system there are at least seven Earth-sized planets. The founders have announced that on these plants there could be similar climate to the Earth’s climate. There could be water on their surfaces. NASA supposes also that on three planets can exist  life. Common name of these seven planets is “seven sisters”.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnKFaAS30X8&feature=youtu.be

The newly discovered planets orbit an ultracool red dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1. The planets have been called from the following letters TRAPPIST-1 b, TRAPPIST-1 c till TRAPPIST-1 h. Six planets have surface temperatures that range  between  0 and 100 degrees Celsius. Three of the seven(e,f and g) are on the habitable zone and the founders believe there may even have oceans on the surface. The objects go close the star and they are very close to each other. For seven of them the space between them is five times smaller than the distance from Mercury to our Sun. The circulations around TRIPAST-1 are (1.51 days, 2.42 days, 4.05 days, 6.10 days, 9.20 days, 12.35 days and for the last of them is over 20 days.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRAPPIST-1

The star TRAPPIST-1 is a little star. It is a bit larger than the Jupiter. The temperature is much lower than the temperature of the Sun and its mass is only 8% of the Earth’s mass. TRAPPIST-1 is a red dwarf so its light has a salmon hue. The scientists suspect that very little stars can have many planets on tight orbits. The system TRAPPIST-1 has provided the first literal confirmation of this hypothesis. 

Source:  https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-telescope-reveals-largest-batch-of-earth-size-habitable-zone-planets-around

In this historical discovery there have been used a lot of ground-based telescopes and space-based telescopes. The research started at the end of the 2015 with TRAPPIST (Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope) telescope based on the Atacama desert in Chile.  30 astronomers from a lot of countries have been involved in this research– from Belgium, United Kingdom, Switzerland, USA, France, RPA, Saudi Arabia and Morocco.  

Source: http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/three_earth_sized_planets_found_orbiting_a_tiny_nearby_star

In the future these seven planets will be the main destination for astronomers in search of life project. To do this, there is under construction a very responsive telescope: James Webb Space Telescope(built by NASA, ESA and the Canadian agency CSA,  scheduled to be launched in October 2018) It will be positioned 1 million miles from the Earth The end of the construction is planned between  2022-2024. These two telescopes will search for  extraterrestrial life.

“These are the best Earth-sized planets for the James Webb Space Telescope to characterize, perhaps for its whole lifetime. The Webb telescope will increase the information we have about these planets immensely. With the extended wavelength coverage we will be able to see if their atmospheres have water, methane, carbon monoxide/dioxide and/or oxygen.” said Hannah Wakeford who is postdoctoral fellow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

1. Do you believe in life in outer space?
2. What do you think about space travel to one of the seven planets?
3. Would you like to participate in one way travel(without returning home) to such planets?

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRAPPIST-1

https://www.nasa.gov/

http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu