#trappist 1

Can you imagine seven Earth-sized, rocky planets orbiting a red dwarf star? Such a system exists, which is known as TRAPPIST-1, and it’s only 40 light-years away.

Multiple space telescopes, including Spitzer and Hubble, have studied this system across different wavelengths of light. And now the James Webb Space Telescope, with its infrared sensitivity and spectroscopic capabilities, is unlocking a new exciting chapter of the TRAPPIST-1 story. With Webb, astronomers are obtaining details about the atmospheric conditions of these planets for the first time, improving their understanding of these intriguing worlds.

What have we learned so far with Webb? And what do we still not know? Get up to speed on the scientific tale of the TRAPPIST-1 system, a story that is still underway.

Mercury and my other beautiful goats… this isn’t related to solarballs btwww ❤️

TRAPPIST-1 by for one of the most studied planetary systems (aside from our solar system). It's located 40 light-years away from us and contains 7 earthlike planets, made of similar compounds as our earth, but not out of the same.

Cedit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Three of the exoplanets in the TRAPPIST-1 system orbit in an area where liquid water could exist.

TRAPPIST-1b, the innermost of these planets, is the focus of a new study that could change how we view the system.

TRAPPIST-1b is not hot enough to give off its own visible light, it does have an infrared glow & that discovery alone is worth cheering.

It was the first detection of any form of light emitted by an exoplanet as small & as "cool" as the rocky planets in our own solar system. As cool as you can be with a temperature of 500 Kelvin... ;]

The result marks an important step in determining whether planets orbiting small active stars like TRAPPIST-1 can sustain atmospheres needed to support life or not.

The analysis shows that the planet's surface rocks are surprisingly young - a maximum of 1,000 years old! And for a planet like that, that's infant-ish, since it has existed for billions of years.

This suggests that processes such as volcanism or plate tectonics continually renew the surface!

Another explanation for the studies results would be a thick atmosphere, rich in carbon dioxide, protected by a dense layer of haze, but it's highly unlikely, because the parent star emits such a strong radiation & solar winds, that they would've erased an existing atmosphere long ago.

But that doesn't mean there couldn't be a very thin atmosphere, as Mars is a good example.

For years, scientists have been debating the odds of life existing on seven fascinating planets orbiting the Trappist-1 star, the most famous planetary system outside our own. The reason? Although several of these planets orbit in their star's habitable zone, the region around a stellar body where liquid water can exist because temperatures are just right, these worlds weren't always so comfortable.  In the past, Trappist-1 exoplanets were subject to much harsher conditions because their parent star used to be much hotter. During those hundreds of millions of scorching years, any water which may have been trapped in the rocks of these planets would have evaporated and dissipated into space, scientists previously thought. That would, of course, ruin the chance of the Trappist-1 planets to develop life as we know it. But a new study, based on a novel modeling technique of the evolution of planetary atmospheres, suggests all may not be lost for life on Trappist-1 exoplanets.

JWST Strips Trappist 1c Bare

If there's one system that has caught the imagination of Earthly exo-planet hunters, it's the Trappist 1 system, offering a wide array of rocky planets, and more than one that lie within the so-called goldilocks zone.

Recent observations by JWST of Trappist 1c has begun to give us some answers.

It was already known that many of these planets were likely tidally locked to the star, making life an interesting but not impossible proposition, but we knew nothing about the potential atmospheres they may have.

Trappist-1c is similar to Venus in terms of solar input, and it was suggested that maybe the planet could be similar, with a thick CO2 atmosphere. The planet isn't in the Goldilocks zone, so it wasn't expected to be Earth like, but observations from JWST cast doubt on if there is any atmosphere at all.

Readings show the planet (sun side) to be just over 100'c, while Venus is 475'c because of the CO2 atmosphere, leading scientists to believe Trappist 1c is without atmosphere, or at best, a very thin one, less dense than even the Martian atmosphere.

This isn't entirely surprising, red dwarf stars are known for their violent storms and atmosphere stripping winds, and it could be the closer planets were never able to hold onto it, but equally, it could be that that there wasn't enough CO2 or O2 or N gas around when the system first formed, and that would have implications for the other rocky planets, regardless of what zone they fall.