NASA have just finished a conference where they announced the existence of the Trappist-1 System, thought to be the greatest chance of life in space.
The system has a ultra cool red dwarf star in the centre called Trappist-1a, this dwarf star is thought to be about half a billion years old and so will have passed it’s solar active young years.
The system has 7 planets named Trappist-1b through to Trappist-1h. Planets e f and g are in the habitual zone and are earth sized rocky planets. Currently there is no signs of water on these planets but with the James-Webb telescope being launched in 2018 we should be able to get a better idea of their atmospheres. If there is water then the three planets will probably be close enough to cause tidal forces on each other (because they don't seem to have moons). The distances between planets are around 5times the distance from the earth to the moon and the distance from Trappist-1b to the star is about 5% of an AU distance (distance from earth to sun). This means from the surface of one planet you would be able to see the other planets clearly. The orbits around the star are from around 1.5days to 20days, with 1.5 being the closet planet and 20 being the furthest, so one year there would be 1.5 to 20 earth days.
This system is about 39light years away and so not somewhere we can travel to currently but is so far the best signs of life outside our solar system.
(All information from the NASA conference on the 22nd February 2017 and the photo from the NASA Twitter page)
