Major Discovery! 7 Earth-Size Alien Planets Circle Nearby Star

[brooklynite]

Source: Space.com

Astronomers have never seen anything like this before: Seven Earth-size alien worlds orbit the same tiny, dim star, and all of them may be capable of supporting life as we know it, a new study reports.

"Looking for life elsewhere, this system is probably our best bet as of today," study co-author Brice-Olivier Demory, a professor at the Center for Space and Habitability at the University of Bern in Switzerland, said in a statement.

The exoplanets circle the star TRAPPIST-1, which lies just 39 light-years from Earth a mere stone's throw in the cosmic scheme of things. So speculation about the alien worlds' life-hosting potential should soon be informed by hard data, study team members said.

...snip...

TRAPPIST-1 is an ultracool dwarf star that's only slightly larger than the planet Jupiter and about 2,000 times dimmer than the sun.



Read more: http://www.space.com/35790-seven-earth-size-planets-trappist-1-discovery.html

---

Livefeed of announcement

[Friend or Foe]

1. Trump to take credit

For discovery of new planets in 3.2.1...

Will soon be complaining of fraudulent votes from citizens on those planets. in 300.299.298...1

[Orsino]

6. I get just a whiff of "please don't cut our budget" off this show.

Lots of praise for Spitzer and much mention of the Webb scope.

[lagomorph777]

11. I hope Trump doesn't figure out that we have a space program.

It's the only thing he hasn't broken yet. Although, NASA does cooperate with Roscosmos a lot, so that might help...

[briv1016]

31. Oh they're already planning on more or less eliminating the Earth Science Division.

[lagomorph777]

57. Yeah, can't have people seeing the alternative to "Alternative Facts"

What if Trump's chumps find out, for example, that the Earth is round?

[moda253]

17. Complains that he would have won the popular vote if not for too many aliens voting.

Complains that he would have won the popular vote if not for too many aliens voting.

[pressbox69]

48. Why not?

He's certainly a space cadet.

[Stuart G]

2. k and r...nt

[DavidDvorkin]

3. They'd know a lot about each other even before achieving spaceflight

Any intelligent life on those planets would know a lot about the other worlds from observation and perhaps listening to radio signals. They would probably be in contact with each other by radio even before being able to travel back and forth -- and travel would be much more feasible than in the solar system.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. I am watching this live feed,

and the one astronomer cannot stop smiling. That's the way my astronomer son smiles when he's telling me stuff like this. It is so cool to watch.

Oh, and that son is researching exo-planets himself. He's in grad school at present, but hopefully he'll have a career in the field.

[riversedge]

5. Bettter photo.....

Link to tweet

[lagomorph777]

10. Very clear illustration!

Thank you.

[riversedge]

14. I could not wrap my head around the mock ups in the OP. Lovely and so exciting (this discovery)

[Blue_Tires]

30. what's with the smoke, spilled water and feathers?

[BlancheSplanchnik]

33. Steam...shows those planets are hot, boils water off.

Water shows those planets are temperate.
Feathers=Frost shows those planets are cold, water freezes and is unavailable for life processes.

[Fast Walker 52]

43. I assume this is supposed to indicate the closer ones are steamy, the middle ones have liquid water

and the outer ones have ice?

Kind of a weird way to depict but it's creative.

[FairWinds]

7. If you were a Trappist, and you knew something about . .

homo sapiens and how they treat other life forms, not to
mention each other . .

how sanguine would you be about being "discovered"?

How would you prepare for contact?

As a veteran, I am constantly amazed at the amount of
effort, time and money human beings invest in killing each other.

Gringolandia, for example, spends (counting everything) about
$ 1.2 TRILLION per year on war - but health care, schools, infrastructure,
etc. are just too darned expensive.

There is a better way - the Trappists are counting on us.

Veterans For Peace

[lagomorph777]

9. My Dad was a Trappist...

...and an astronomer. He would have loved this! As do I!

[FairWinds]

12. Trump will probably want to see his visa . .

[MFM008]

51. I doubt it

BLOTUS isn't very interested in science.
He still can't believe Earth is a planet.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

34. I thought about us going in and destroying life and resources there.

:/

[Kimchijeon]

8. That is amazing!

[Ohioblue22]

13. only 40 light years

why that only means they are way out of our reach

[msanthrope]

23. only until the warp-drive goes fully operational. nt

[MicaelS]

39. Paging Dr. Alcubierre. n/t

[N77VG]

15. Their astronomers probably feel sorry for us

having only one!

[Martin Eden]

16. How do we build a wall ...

... to keep out THOSE kind of aliens?

[JHB]

40. Google"Dyson sphere"

[Martin Eden]

42. No need

I saw it on Star Trek.

Looks more expensive than what Trump has in mind.

[harun]

18. Big!

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

19. I wonder what the radiation is like in that neighborhood

[MicaelS]

38. The star is a red dwarf the size of Jupiter.

So I would say the system is very old, and low radiation output.

[Botany]

20. @ the speed of light it would only take 78 yearas round trip

BTW they would be watching Mork and Mindy now if they are picking up our
TV shows.

[True Dough]

26. Nanu Nanu!

[psychopomp]

47. A common misconception

Due to the inverse square law, our TV signals attenuate to be nearly imperceptible after a few light years:

https://phys.org/news/2015-01-aliens-tv.html

[Botany]

55. But what if they had cable hook up?

Or maybe a T.V. w/rabbit ears?

[tclambert]

21. This really worries me. Seven planets the right size and location to support life?

It doesn't seem natural. Anybody who could build a system like that could wipe us out in nothing flat. Then they could tear apart Jupiter to make 300+ habitable planets.

[hunter]

25. Yep. Maybe someone has built a zoo to keep us in.

[elmac]

27. exhibit will be called

Aliens from the planet Trumpkin.

[hunter]

32. One of those is the dinosaur planet.

They collected samples just ahead of the asteroid impact.

Another planet represents human time, specimens collected just ahead of our current civilization destroying the place.

[csziggy]

35. If one is populated by dinosaurs, it should be named Ireta

After the planet in Anne McCaffrey's books:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur_Planet_(novel)

Dinosaur Planet: Varian & Kai are leading an exploratory team to the planet Ireta, where they are surprised to find creatures from Earth's Mezozoic Era. Then a mutiny is lead by some members of the team.

Dinosaur Planet Survivors: 43 years later, the survivors of the mutiny awaken from cold sleep and must reckon with the descendants of the mutineers.
http://mccaffrey.srellim.org/series/dpp-plot.htm

[justhanginon]

22. Pack extra underwear and socks. My somewhat rusty math says

that is 234 trillion miles. That is a lot of "are we there yets?".

[csziggy]

37. I wonder how soon we could send out a generation ship?

Since it will take more than a few human lifespans to get there with our current technology.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_ship

Of course until we learn how to effectively run a biosphere that does not poison itself and can be regulated for a few hundred years, that will not happen.

[Bayard]

24. Vulcans have already been there

And they're saying---Trappists, stay away from that little blue planet over in the next system. No minds to be melded there.

Seriously, this is a very exciting discovery.

[appleannie1943]

28. Don't let the Koch Bros or our new Sec. of State know. They will want to send people to mine and

explore for oil on them.

[derby378]

29. Probably the best news I'll hear all month

New worlds, new vistas, new possibilities. Imagine standing on one of those worlds and gazing into the night sky, only to find other planets filling the night in the same way that our own moon does.

And if there be oceans on at least one world, the other planets will exert tidal forces on the seas.

Just let all of that sink in.

Wow.

[exboyfil]

36. This is the solar system that Firefly the science fiction series is set in

No need for faster than light travel. Reasonable distance to reach within the next 200-300 years.

Wow.

[joshcryer]

41. They're probably tidally locked, but yeah, this is definitely a Firefly like solar system.

Props for the reference.

[Baclava]

44. All earths lasers should be turned on to fire off Morse code type messages directed at the system

We should get a reply in 80 years or so

[miyazaki]

45. I visited a Trappist Monestary once. They made cookies and butter.

Just sayin'.

[olddad56]

46. I was born and raised on one of them. Wish I could go back.

[Beartracks]

49. Soon...

===================

[yagotme]

50. Man. Wonder what the gravitational effects on the planets would be like,

on a multi-planet lineup.

[csziggy]

58. Astrologers' heads would explode!

But I bet their equivalents of Isaac Newton would have carved their calculations on stone tablets.

[yagotme]

59. Don't know,

but that much disruption would probably crack every rock on the planet over eons.

[csziggy]

60. Those planets would give a whole new scale to geologic time!

Plate tectonics might be visible over a human lifetime.

[yagotme]

61. I'm not so sure that I would want to be the person viewing them.

Instability to the max!

[csziggy]

62. I bet if a ship is ever sent there it will be capable of monitoring for decades

Before it arrives, giving a good idea of how stable the planets are.

[meadowlander]

52. I volunteer!

[Laffy Kat]

53. I want to move to one NOW! nt

[Baclava]

54. Maybe they are already on the way

[Laffy Kat]

56. Can't get here soon enough, IMO.

I will welcome our alien overlords.