During a press conference held on the evening of February 23rd, NASA scientists declared the identification of a new solar system consisting of seven planets, three of which have the potential to sustain life.
This exoplanetary system is named Trappist-1 and is situated about 40 light-years away from Earth. The majority of these planets exist in solid form rather than as gas, and they have the necessary conditions for liquid water to be present on their surfaces.
In this context, a light-year is a widely used unit of measurement in space science, representing the distance light travels in one year, equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers.
Currently, the Juno spacecraft holds the record for human speed, reaching 265,000 kilometers per hour when flying past Jupiter due to the gravitational pull of the planet. Assuming this velocity could be maintained continuously, it would take humans approximately 1,427,924,528 hours, equivalent to 163,000 years, to travel from Earth to Trappist-1.
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Simulation of the surfaces of the planets in Trappist-1. (Image: NASA)
The name of this planetary system is derived from the Trappist telescope located at La Silla, Chile, where its planets were discovered. Among Trappist-1’s seven planets, three, namely e, f, and g, orbit within the “habitable zone” called the Goldilocks Zone, where suitable temperatures and liquid surface oceans may exist.
The central dwarf star in Trappist-1 has a temperature of approximately 2,300 degrees Celsius and an age of 500 million years. In comparison, our Sun is approximately 4.6 billion years old and has a temperature of 5,500 degrees Celsius.
Due to the relatively low temperature of the dwarf star, six out of the seven planets in the Trappist-1 system have surface temperatures below 100 degrees Celsius.
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The planets of Trappist-1. (Image: Telegraph)
Currently, the Hubble Space Telescope is being used to search for atmospheres around the planets in Trappist-1. In the future, advanced telescopic systems such as the European Extremely Large Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope may have the capability to detect necessary elements for life, such as oxygen.
Professor Sara Seager, a planetary scientist and physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, stated, “In this planetary system, many planets lie within the Goldilocks Zone.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Michaël Gillon from the University of Liège, Belgium, believes that these planets are located close enough to each other that one could clearly observe their neighbors while standing on the surface, similar to how humans view the Moon.
According to the Telegraph, the first exoplanet was discovered in 1992, and to date, the number has reached 3,577 planets. Among them, more than 10 planets are believed to meet the conditions for life to exist. However, only three planets, e, f, and g in the Trappist-1 system, possess ideal conditions.
Additionally, scientists estimate that there are about 40 billion potentially habitable planets in our galaxy, the Milky Way, and the discovery of Trappist-1 is considered a significant leap in the search for extraterrestrial life beyond Earth.