This puts them in a position closer to the star than the habitable zone of this system, although it may possess habitable regions on their surfaces. The research team said that due to their distance and the heat they receive from their star, the planets can support liquid water.
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Three potentially habitable and definitely weird planets have been detected orbiting an ultracool dwarf star that’s 40 light-years away from Earth.
A team of astronomers have discovered three new “exoplanets” orbiting around a nearby ultracool dwarf star some 40 light years from earth.
Detailed analysis has now shown that three planets with similar sizes to the Earth were present. Lying in the Aquarius constellation, the star is quite dim, escaping the naked eye and even large amateur telescopes, according to the European Southern Observatory.
The three planets orbit the ultracool dwarf star named 2MASS J23062928-0502285, which has since been renamed TRAPPIST-1. This makes the planets closer to TRAPPIST-1 than we are to the sun. It turns out that two of TRAPPIST-1’s planets are expected to cross the star’s disk on Wednesday.
“While such a “cold” star might sound exotic, many, if not most, of the stars in our Milky Way Galaxy are of this cool, red, small and dim variety”. “If these planets have atmospheres, they really are the best places to look for life”.
TRAPPIST-1b and TRAPPIST-1c were found to have orbits lasting 1.51 and 2.42 Earth days, respectively, while TRAPPIST-1d’s orbital period could last anywhere from 4.5 to almost 73 Earth days.
Another UC San Diego scientist, Daniella Bardalez Gagliuffi, also co-authored the paper along with an worldwide team of planet-hunters. They are roughly Earth-size. The structure of this planetary system is much more similar in scale to the system of moons of Jupiter to the solar system.
A robotic telescope called TRAPPIST (TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope) made the discovery.
The astronomers believe all three may be habitable, and they are now turning larger instruments on these new worlds to find out more.
“Before this discovery it was not at all clear whether such a small star could host an Earth-sized planet”. Two of them get four times the radiation as we do from the Sun, putting them in a “habitable zone” for water – the starter ingredient for life.
The two planets are tidally locked which means that one side always faces the star. As an ultra-cool dwarf star, it has a temperature of less than 2,700 kelvin – more than 2,000 C – making it half as hot as the sun.
In September 2015, Trappist-1 – was seen to fade slightly at regular intervals, showing that several objects were passing in front of it.
It would still be impossible to reach the planets unless we discovered a way to beat the ageing process or freeze our bodies and preserve our brains for thousands of years before being revived again. The mysterious dwarf star is unlike the kind many usually see.
There might, however, be a “sweet spot” on the western side of both planets.
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Scientists looking for life outside our solar system could be one step closer to their goal. But the planets are close enough to the star to have “temperate” conditions on their surface, MIT researcher Julien De Wit told NPR.
