NASA Discovers Largest Batch of Earth-Size, Habitable-Zone Planets Around Single Star

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed the first known system of seven Earth-size planets around a single star - a tiny, nearby, ultra-cool dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1. Three of these planets are located in the habitable zone, the area around the parent star where a rocky planet is most likely to have liquid water. The discovery sets a new record for greatest number of habitable-zone planets found around a single star outside our solar system. All of these seven planets could have liquid water under the right atmospheric conditions, but the chances are highest with the three in the habitable zone. Over 21 days, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope measured the drop in light as each planet passed in front of the star.

Transcript

00:00:00 ♪ A treasure trove of planets found Astronomers are celebrating a new discovery. Sean Carey, Manager, Spitzer Science Center, Caltech IPAC The big news is that around a very nearby cold, small star we found seven rocky, Earth-sized planets, all of which could potentially have liquid water. Three of them orbit in the habitable zone around the star.

00:00:25 And liquid water could exist on any of the seven planets given the right conditions. Nikole Lewis, James Webb Telescope Project Scientist, Space Telescope Science Institute For me it's mind-blowing. The first time I saw what the system had in it, I was just like, "You got to be kidding me!" Then I looked at the data myself. I'm like, "Yup, there they all are." It's just, I would have never predicted this.

00:00:41 It's beyond, you know, anything I could've ever dreamt of. The planetary system is called TRAPPIST-1 after the Belgian-operated telescope in Chile. TRAPPIST found two planets in 2016. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, with the help of ground-based telescopes, discovered five more. Michael Gillon, Principal Investigator, TRAPPIST, University of Liege, Belgium I felt super-excited. Amazed by the very existence of this system...

00:01:06 was kind of... of yeah... of shock. The TRAPPIST-1 planets are extremely close to one another. From a planet's surface you could easily see other TRAPPIST-1 planets in the sky. If you were standing on one of these planets you'd actually see a lot of them sort of in the sky whipping by on these very short orbital periods. NASA's James Webb Telescope, launching in 2018, could teach us even more about the TRAPPIST-1 system.

00:01:36 It will be able to detect the chemical fingerprints of water, methane and oxygen of potential atmospheres, key ingredients in assessing habitability. It is an excellent, fantastic discovery. All images of planets are artist's conceptions. Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology