Seven Alien 'Earths' Found Orbiting Nearby Star

The Earth-size worlds orbit a star just 39 light-years away, and most may have the
right conditions to host liquid water on their surfaces.

Illustration of a dwarf star

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An illustration shows the view from just above one of the middle planets in the
TRAPPIST-1 star system, which is now known to host seven Earth-size worlds.

ILLUSTRATION BY M. KORNMESSER, SPACEENGINE.ORG/ESO

By Nadia Drake

PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 22, 2017

Seven rocky planets orbiting a nearby star may be roughly the size of Earth and
could even be right for waterand maybe lifeto adorn their surfaces, researchers
announced Wednesday.

The planets, which circle a star called TRAPPIST-1 just 39 light-years away, are
tucked together so tightly that they routinely spangle each others skies, sometimes
appearing as shimmering crescents and at other times as orbs nearly twice as large
as the full moon.

The spectacle would be beautiful, says the University of Cambridges Amaury

Triaud, coauthor of a study describing the otherworldly heptad that appears in the
journal Nature.

The TRAPPIST-1 system is now tied with several others that have seven planets for
the greatest number of planets in a stellar system other than our own (which has
eight, not counting dwarf planets like Pluto). The systems existence suggests that
Earth-size planets are much more plentiful than previously imagined.

And now, its among the best neighborhoods to study for signs of life beyond Earth:
The relative sizes of the planets and star, plus the systems proximity, mean that
plucking the signatures of living, breathing organisms from the planets
atmospheres could be within reach.
Those yawning over yet another discovery of habitable-zone planets may not fully
appreciate that priorities are shifting and focusing, says NASAs Natalie Batalha.
Temperate, terrestrial-sized planets are relatively common in the galaxy. The name
of the game now is to find those near enough for atmospheric characterization.

WATCH: SEVEN EXOPLANETS AROUND COOL DWARF Get amazing facts about the
planets found around the nearby star TRAPPIST-1, which orbits just 39 light-years
away.

LUCKY NUMBER SEVEN

If the name TRAPPIST-1 sounds familiar, its because scientists have been
announcing splashy discoveries about the star and its planets for nearly a year now,
aided by an army of telescopes based in Chile, Morocco, South Africa, and
elsewhere. Last May, the team presented evidence that at least three planets
orbited the star, some of which were deemed Earth-size and potentially habitable.
Then, in July, MITs Julien de Wit reported more about what two of the planets could
be like, suggesting denser atmospheres like those of Earth and Venus.

Now, after aiming NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope at the system for 20 unblinking
days and nights, scientists have spotted and confirmed even more planets around
TRAPPIST-1. Though their home star is a runtroughly 8 percent of the suns mass
and about one-thousandth as brightits among the most common types of stars in
the Milky Way galaxy, called an M dwarf. The stars feeble light washes over the
seven sister planets in mostly infrared, which can be felt as heat but is invisible to
the human eye.

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Spitzer can see in infrared, and as the telescope stared at the star, a pattern began
to emerge. The stars infrared light would periodically dim as its planets marched
across its face, casting shadows that betrayed their presence. Among those blips,
scientists counted signs of seven planets.
Three were the original Earth-size planets announced last year. Curiously, further
scrutiny revealed that one of the planets announced in 2016 turned out to be
multiple worlds.

Ultimately, seven planets shook themselves loose from the starlight to create a
cosmic septet.

The detections of the six inner planets are very secure, and the seventh planet is
likely real, too, says Lauren Weiss of the Universit de Montral. If TRAPPIST-1
could make this many planets, there are probably a lot of other small stars with a
similar number of planets.

Called TRAPPIST-1b, 1c, and so on through TRAPPIST-1h, the planets have years
ranging in length from 1.5 to roughly 20 Earth days. Theyre snuggled closer to their
star than Mercury is to the sun and, like siblings in a crowded household, they
gravitationally tug and jostle one another, causing slight delays and perturbations in
the pattern of blips spied by Spitzer.

Based on those perturbations, scientists could determine the approximate masses

of the planets. They found that in addition to being roughly Earths size, theyre also
roughly the same mass. That means the seven sisters are likely rocky, although its
possible they could be small worlds enveloped in big fluffy atmospheres, says
Weiss.

With the caveat that TRAPPIST-1hs orbit isnt well known, it seems three of the
planetsTRAPPIST-1e through TRAPPIST-1gare squarely in the stars habitable
zone; the rest could be habitable, or at least, the right temperature for water to pool
and flow across their surfaces if their internal anatomy and atmospheres cooperate.

Until recently, scientists searching for Earths cosmic cousins concentrated on stars
similar to our sun. This discovery, plus others, suggests that small, dim stars are
also quite capable of hosting Earthsgood news for those keeping track of how
many such planets might be populating the galaxy.
The authors could have been lucky, but finding seven transiting Earth-sized planets
in such a small sample suggests that the solar system with its four (sub-)Earth-sized
planets might be nothing out of the ordinary, writes Leiden Universitys Ignas
Snellen in a commentary accompanying the study.

SEARCH FOR LIFE

Scientists are particularly intrigued by TRAPPIST-1f, the fifth rock from its star, and
suggest that it could be in the sweetest of the spots where life could thrive.

But dont get too excited about life yet, for a number of reasons.

First of all, the system is comparable in scale and architecture to Jupiter and its four
large moons, each of which orbits the giant planet with the same face pointed
inward, all the time. TRAPPIST-1s planets likely do the same, meaning that one of
their hemispheres is kept relatively toasty while the other is perpetually facing into
the cold cosmic night.