#trappist 1

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.

En el caso de un planeta enano rojo joven con atmósfera, la mayoría de los rayos X nunca alcanzarían la superficie, pero el mundo joven seguiría estando bañado por la radiación ultravioleta.

El sistema TRAPPIST-1 es el sueño de cualquier escritor de ciencia ficción. Siete mundos del tamaño de la Tierra orbitan alrededor de una estrella enana roja a tan solo 40 años luz de distancia. Tres de esos mundos están dentro de la zona habitable de la estrella. El sistema se extiende a una distancia de menos de 25 veces la distancia entre la Tierra y la Luna. ¡Qué historias épicas tendría una…

Alguno de estos siete planetas podría contener una civilización tecnológicamente avanzada

Los planetas son cuerpos que orbitan alrededor de una estrella y tienen suficiente masa gravitatoria como para adoptar formas aproximadamente esféricas que, a su vez, ejercen fuerza gravitatoria sobre objetos más pequeños a su alrededor, como asteroides y lunas. Durante la mayor parte de la historia de la humanidad, los únicos planetas que conocían nuestros antepasados ​​eran los que podían ver…